Two drones were spotted late Thursday above a military base in western Germany, two days after a drone carrying explosives was found near the runway at Leipzig/Halle airport in the east of the country, authorities said Saturday.
A spokesman for the German armed forces said the drones were spotted on Thursday at around 22 p.m. local time (20 p.m. GMT) above a base in Mechernich, in the federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia, about 35 kilometers from the border with Belgium, Reuters reports.
After the presence of the aircraft was confirmed, military police were called in and the case was handed over to police in the nearby town of Euskirchen. A spokesman said police were investigating, without providing further details.
German media reported that the Bundeswehr site in Mechernich has a high-security underground warehouse intended for storing equipment and spare parts for military equipment, as well as a base for personnel responsible for maintaining American Patriot air defense systems.
The drone, which was found late on Tuesday at Leipzig/Halle Airport, a NATO civilian cargo and logistics hub, was near several Ukrainian Antonov An-124 cargo planes, German media reported, according to Reuters.
This case has once again raised concerns about the entry of drones into NATO airspace and intensified the debate about whether strategically important members of the military alliance, such as Germany, are ready to respond to new security threats.
German government officials have not publicly accused any foreign country of the incident, but some lawmakers have accused Russia, which has been at war with Ukraine since the start of its military invasion of that country in 2022.
The Russian Embassy in Berlin on Friday dismissed the Leipzig event as a "fabricated provocation," stating that it was another example of accusing Russia without evidence.
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