A drone of an undetermined type exploded in the sky over Bulgaria near the border with Romania. No one was injured in the incident, and the infrastructure was not damaged either. According to Euronews, Bulgarian officials said this, UNN reports.
Details
According to Bulgaria’s prime minister, the drone entered the country’s airspace from Romania and exploded approximately one kilometer from a compressor station of the Trans-Balkan gas pipeline, near the former Kardam border crossing.
The noise from the drone was initially detected by the Romanian border police. Later, a Bulgarian border patrol heard a powerful explosion.
"The site of the drone explosion was immediately identified," the prime minister said, adding that there were no casualties and that buildings and infrastructure facilities were not damaged.
At the same time, Bulgarian and Romanian authorities were unable to detect the drone while it was in the airspace of the two countries. Surveillance in the region is planned to be strengthened following the incident.
An investigation is currently underway to establish the type of drone and the circumstances of its appearance in Bulgarian airspace.
The incident occurred amid an increase in the number of cases involving violations of Romanian airspace by drones. At the end of July, the Romanian military shot down three drones over the course of three days. According to the Romanian authorities, at least one of them was a Shahed-type drone used by Russian forces.
Bulgaria and Romania are NATO members and are located on the Alliance’s eastern flank. Both countries border the Black Sea, making security incidents related to Russia’s war against Ukraine a particular threat to them.
The drone’s crash site is also of strategic importance because of the gas infrastructure located nearby. Kardam is one of the important points of the Vertical Gas Corridor, which ensures the transportation of gas from Greece through Bulgaria and Romania onward to the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, including Moldova and Ukraine.
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