Bulgaria: Unknown drone explodes near Romanian border

A drone entered Bulgarian airspace and exploded near the Romanian border and the Trans-Balkan gas pipeline. According to Bulgarian Prime Minister Rumen Radev, the drone exploded just after 5 a.m. about 100 meters inside Bulgarian territory, with no casualties or damage to buildings. The area was cordoned off and surveillance was increased.

The drone was not detected or identified while flying through either Romanian or Bulgarian airspace. It exploded around 200 meters from a Romanian compressor station and about 1 kilometer from Bulgaria's compressor station on the pipeline. Radev stated that the incident would be raised at a meeting of the North Atlantic Council early next week.

The origin of the drone and any potential links to Russia or Ukraine were unclear. Bulgaria's Defense Minister Dimitar Stoyanov said the incident would be discussed at the North Atlantic Council meeting. Radev also announced that border police anti-drone detection and countermeasure capabilities would be redeployed from the border with Turkey to the border with Romania.

Brief written by urgent.news from DW News, Associated Press, Euronews — 3 reports on this story. Machine-written — it may contain errors, so check the original before relying on it.