Drone with explosives found at German airport

BERLIN — A drone carrying explosives was found near a runway at Germany's Leipzig/Halle Airport and the device was defused, authorities said Wednesday, with Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt calling the incident a "new threat scenario" and a "new quality of danger".

Both runways at the major freight hub were closed and several flights were diverted after a flying object was sighted near the airport shortly before midnight Tuesday.

Regional police and prosecutors said an airport employee discovered the drone near the airport's south runway with "an unknown explosive device". Police examined the object with an anti-explosives robot and removed its detonator.

"Drone sightings and drone threats, including in a hybrid context, are something we know from the past," Dobrindt told reporters at the airport after interrupting his vacation to travel to the scene. "That a drone armed with explosives is at an airport is a new threat scenario."

Dobrindt described the incident as a "hybrid attack scenario" but said questions about the explosives, the origin of the drone and who was behind it were part of the ongoing investigation.

Germany opened a counterterrorism investigation after the drone prompted the closure of parts of one of Europe's biggest cargo hubs. Dobrindt also held an emergency meeting with the heads of Germany's security services.

The regional interior minister of Saxony state, Armin Schuster, said authorities were looking for parts of a possible second drone.

Police and prosecutors said an apparent second flying object collided with a freight airplane after it aborted a landing at Leipzig/Halle Airport because the runway was closed. The plane later landed at Hannover, about 200 kilometers northwest of Leipzig, where officials found slight damage.

A source familiar with the incident said the cargo plane belonged to German logistics company DHL. Investigators were examining what the plane had struck in the air.

No danger to passengers

The airport's north runway was reopened after about two hours, while the south runway remained closed as bomb squad experts examined the drone. Authorities said there was no danger to passengers or airport employees, and flights were not affected during the day.

Leipzig/Halle is a major cargo hub for DHL and Ukraine's Antonov Airlines. Photos from the scene showed police technicians with an explosives-disposal robot near a Ukrainian Antonov transport aircraft.

German airports have been on high alert after a series of unauthorized drone overflights at military facilities, energy terminals, seaports and logistics companies. Federal police and security agencies have assessed some of the overflights could have been organized by Russian agents.

In 2024, an incendiary device ignited at a logistics center at the airport and set fire to a freight container, in a plot that security officials suspect Russian intelligence was behind. European security agencies have also investigated incendiary devices concealed in parcels that caused fires at cargo facilities across Europe.

An interior ministry spokesperson said no connection with Tuesday night's incident could be determined at this stage. Russia has denied involvement in the 2024 incidents and recent drone overflights.

AGENCIES VIA XINHUA