Drones observed over German military base following recent airport incident
Two unmanned aircraft were seen over a Bundeswehr base in Mechernich on Thursday, prompting a police investigation and deployment of military police, days after a drone carrying explosives was discovered at Leipzig/Halle Airport.
Security cameras at the Bundeswehr facility in Mechernich recorded two drones around 10 p.m. on Thursday, the German Joint Force Command said in a statement. Military police were dispatched to the site and the Euskirchen police opened an investigation. The police did not immediately comment and the armed forces released no further details.
The sighting follows a separate incident in which a drone loaded with explosives was found at Leipzig/Halle Airport on Tuesday night. The device was defused, and Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt described the event as representing a "new quality of danger."
Leipzig/Halle serves as a major freight hub and a logistical base for NATO operations supporting Ukraine and other alliance missions. Earlier this year, an incendiary device ignited at a logistics centre at the airport, a plot that Western security officials suspect was linked to Russian intelligence.
The Russian Embassy in Germany responded to the Leipzig incident, characterising it as part of a "new wave of anti-Russian hysteria in Germany."