Police investigating threatening emails sent to schools across Northern Ireland are treating the matter as "a hoax".

The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) said more than "300 schools to date have reported to police receiving the same emailed message".

The Department of Education had advised schools to remain open "unless otherwise advised by the PSNI".

In October, a number of schools closed after an email threatened that "an explosive device" was located within hundreds of schools in Northern Ireland.

Education minister Paul Givan said he discussed the latest incident with the PSNI and the Education Authority (EA) during an "urgent meeting".

"I don't want any schools to close in the future whenever threats of this nature are not credible, they shouldn't be given any credence and we need to be able to rule them out much more quickly than what we have been able to do today albeit it has improved from last time," he added.

"I still think there is a better way to do this, that is why I convened an urgent meeting with the police service and education authority so that we can address these issues in the future."

He said the threatening emails had caused "huge disruption".

"Part of the work we need to do is trying to protect our email system, so that these kind of threats, that aren't credible don't ever get through to the school principal in the first place," Givan said.

"We need to find a way to screen them out.

"We think that AI (artificial intelligence) is also being harnessed as part of this cyber attack by an individual and that is having a real detrimental impact."

Earlier the EA said the latest "message has similarities with a bogus threat sent last month" which was treated as a hoax.

"At this stage, we have not been made aware of any evidence of any credible threat to schools," it said.

The police said the email originated from outside the UK.

PSNI Assistant Chief Constable Anthony McNally said: "We take incidents of this nature very seriously and we understand the concern in the community, school communities and for students and parents."

He added that the police "will continue to liaise with schools impacted".

Chris Donnelly, the principal of St John the Baptist Primary School in Belfast, confirmed his school had received another threatening email.

"It is ultimately targeting children, obviously staff we are here, but the bulk of the school is the children... and that is something that does more than irritate, it angers people," he told BBC Radio Ulster's Talkback programme.

He said classrooms had been checked for "anything suspicious" and parents, guardians and school governors had been contacted.

Police Scotland said "threatening messages were sent to a number of schools in Scotland and across and the UK".

"These messages were immediately assessed and are being treated as hoaxes," it said.

On Wednesday, An Garda Síochána (Irish police) said it was "aware of a generic communication that has been sent to a number of educational establishments" in the Republic of Ireland.

"An Garda Síochána assess this threat as not credible and is not advising any educational establishment to evacuate," it said.

In Italy, more than 6,000 schools have received bomb threats, according to government in Rome.

Education Minister Giuseppe Valditara has said the incidents are probably a "cyber-attack, not a genuine risk".

Victoria Primary School in Newtownards in County Down was evacuated in the morning but reopened about an hour later after guidance from the department.

Some of its pupils had left but some remained.

Carmen Hill, whose daughter is in P3, received a message at about 10:00 GMT to say the school had been evacuated and the pupils were being taken to a nearby church.

"All the kids were there, no coats, no bags, the kids were tired, hungry, cold. So we took her home until it was all clear, then took her back in."

"It was worrying because it is just not something you want to see from your kids' school," Hill added.

She said her daughter "didn't really know what was going on" and that she was "more confused".

Hill said the school took the right decision by putting the children first but "it is obviously going to be a lot of stress for parents," especially those in work.

Rachael Hunt's six-year-old son, Mayson, attends a Special Educational Needs (SEN) school in Limavady, County Londonderry.

She decided to take her son out of Rossmar School at midday.

"I just think receiving that message is frightening," Hunt said.

"I fully understand that this isn't the first instance that schools have received this sort of email, but as a parent you send your child to school in the morning, and you believe that they're somewhere safe."

Alliance MLA and the chair of Stormont's education committee, Nick Mathison, said it was worrying for parents and the concern was "the potential that this could become a repeated attempt to disrupt education across Northern Ireland".

"I do think there is a need and I would say it is likely to be at departmental level on potentially engaging with their counterparts across the water and with security services around what is actually going on here?

"Are we dealing with any sense of a potential threat down the line or... just malicious online activity?"

He added that he believed the protocols had worked "more quickly" and "guidance was issued in a much more timely fashion than in the last instance of this".

Sinn Féin MLA Pat Sheehan said the "latest reports of sinister threats made to schools this morning are despicable".

"It is completely unacceptable that school communities have once again been left facing this level of fear, uncertainty and disruption," he said.