By Matthias Inverardi
BERLIN, Aug 5 (Reuters) - German Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt said the explosive-laden drone found near a runway at Leipzig/Halle airport overnight was a hybrid attack which opened a new level of danger.
Germany opened a counterterrorism investigation on Wednesday after the drone prompted the closure of parts of one of Europe's biggest cargo hubs.
"Drone sightings and drone threats in a hybrid context are something we have known from the past, but a drone armed with explosives
being present on airport grounds is a new threat scenario," Dobrindt said, after an emergency meeting with the heads of Germany's security services on Wednesday night.
Airport workers discovered the drone in a restricted cargo area near the southern runway overnight. Flights were suspended and several aircraft, including some owned by German logistics firm DHL, were diverted.
Authorities said there had been no danger to passengers or airport staff and most operations resumed by morning after one runway was reopened.
All speculation about the explosives, the drone, its origin, and who is behind it, is now part of the investigation, the interior minister said.
"It is part of the nature of hybrid threats that it is not always immediately clear where they originate," Dobrindt said.
DIVERTED PLANE HITS UNIDENTIFIED OBJECT
Investigators were also examining what a cargo plane had struck in the air after being diverted from the airport in eastern Germany during the disruption.
Minor damage was discovered after it landed in Hanover, authorities said. A source familiar with the incident said the plane belonged to DHL.
The southern runway of the airport, a major hub for DHL and Ukraine's Antonov Airlines, remained closed while explosives experts examined the drone and removed its detonator, according to authorities.
LATEST IN A SERIES OF DRONE THREATS
German airports are on high alert after a series of unauthorised drone overflights at sites including military facilities, energy terminals, seaports and logistics companies.
"What is happening now also shows that the assessment made months ago — that we are dealing with a high level of danger — was justified," Dobrindt told reporters.
Federal police have said the overflights could have been organised by Russian agents.
Germany's Bild newspaper reported that the Leipzig drone had been found lying in the immediate vicinity of a Ukrainian Antonov cargo plane. The airline has used Leipzig/Halle as an operating base since Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022.
Anti-extremism prosecutors and counterterrorism officers took over the investigation after experts confirmed the drone was carrying explosives.
"Such threat situations are not carried out by amateurs, but must be prepared very professionally and executed professionally," Dobrindt told reporters.
European security agencies have been investigating a series of incendiary devices concealed in parcels that caught fire in 2024, raising concerns about sabotage of air cargo operators.
Some of the devices were found at a DHL warehouse in Leipzig and in freight shipments in transit across Europe.
An Interior Ministry spokesperson said no connection with Tuesday night's incident could be determined at this stage.
Russia has denied any involvement in the 2024 incidents and the more recent overflights.
(Reporting by Friederike Heine, Markus Wacket, Miranda Murray and Maria Martinez in Berlin and Matthias Inverardi in Duesseldorf; Editing by Sabine Wollrab, Kevin Liffey and Daniel Wallis)
