The group which has been causing chaos in schools with a spate of bomb threats, may have been identified.

Phone threats have been made in several countries over the past few weeks 27 New Zealand schools were hit yesterday.

Security expert Daniel Ayers said the group behind the hoaxes call themselves The Evacuators, and claim to be Russian.

But he said one member was recently arrested in the US and turned out to be a 16 year-old who was pulling a prank on his high school.

"So the alleged Russian link might be misdirection and I suspect it's just a bunch of bored kids maybe from the US, maybe internationally, who have just found a new way to annoy everybody."