German Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt has warned that an explosives-laden drone discovered at Leipzig/Halle Airport represents a “new threat scenario” for Germany, as counterterrorism investigators examine whether foreign actors could have been involved in the incident that briefly forced the suspension of flights overnight into Wednesday.
Dobrindt described the discovery as an escalation from previous cases involving unauthorized drones near airports. “Drone sightings, drone threats including in a hybrid context, are something we know from the past,” he told reporters during a news briefing Wednesday. “That a drone armed with explosives is at an airport is a new threat scenario.”
It remains unclear at this stage who was behind the incident, although Dobrindt said, “We are dealing with a competition here which may also include foreign powers.”
The interior minister said that the operation did not appear to be the work of amateurs but rather had been professionally planned and executed.
