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Romania scrambles jets after drone breaches airspace

storyp1> BUCHAREST, Oct 17 (Reuters) Romania rushed four fighter jets on Thursday after a small flying item, likely a drone, breached national airspace up to 14 km inland in the southeastern county of Constanta, the defence ministry stated.

The European Union and NATO state, which shares a 650-km (400-mile) border with Ukraine, has had Russian drone pieces fall onto its territory consistently over the previous year and a half as Moscow attacks Ukrainian port facilities.

The radar signal indicated Romania's land border was crossed at around 1600 GMT, the ministry said in a statement, adding the drone was first spotted heading for Romania over the Black Sea.

Romania rushed two F-16 fighter jets and two Spanish F-18s which are performing air policing objectives in the nation for the remainder of the year. The pilots did not see the drone.

Locals of Constanta county were warned to take cover.

Army personnel will look for a prospective crash site on Friday morning, the ministry stated.

In early September, Romania and Latvia both had their airspace breached by Russian drones, prompting worries of escalation and defence ministers from NATO's eastern flank collectively called for a robust coordinated reaction from the alliance to drone airspace breaches.

A Russian drone breached Romania's air space once again in late September.


(source: Reuters)