Large drones that flew over Copenhagen airport for hours and caused it to shut down constituted the “most serious attack on Danish critical infrastructure” to date, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said yesterday.
Airports in Copenhagen and Oslo reopened early yesterday, hours after unidentified drones in their airspace caused dozens of flights to be diverted or canceled, disrupting thousands of passengers.
“This is part of the development we have recently observed with other drone attacks, airspace violations and cyberattacks targeting European airports,” Frederiksen said in a statement.
Photo: AFP
She referred to similar drone incidents in Poland and Romania, and the violation by Russian fighter jets of Estonia’s airspace. The governments of Poland, Estonia and Romania have pointed the finger at Moscow, which has brushed off the allegations.
Frederiksen told Danish broadcaster DR she could “not rule out” that Russia was behind the drone activity.
Moscow denied involvement, with Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov criticizing her remarks as “unfounded accusations.”
However, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said it was “too early to say” whether the drone flights were linked to recent Russian violations of the alliance’s airspace.
“The Danes are at this moment exactly assessing what happened, to make sure what is behind this. We are in very close contact on this. So it is too early to say,” Rutte said, adding that he had spoken to the Danish prime minister.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on X denounced what he said was a Russian violation of Denmark’s airspace.
Danish police said they had been unable to identify the drone operator.
“The number, size, flight patterns, time over the airport. All this together ... indicates that it is a capable actor. Which capable actor, I do not know,” Copenhagen Chief Police Inspector Jens Jespersen told reporters.
“It was an actor that had the capacity, the will and the tools to make their presence known,” he said.
Danish intelligence said the Scandinavian country was facing a “high threat of sabotage.”
“Someone may not necessarily want to attack us, but rather stress us out and see how we react,” said Flemming Drejer, director of operations at Denmark’s intelligence service PET.
Jespersen said “several large drones” flew over Copenhagen Airport for more than three hours on Monday evening.
Police decided not to shoot down the drones for safety reasons.
“You have to think very carefully before starting to try to take down such big drones,” Jespersen said.
If they were to fall to the ground, “there are planes with people, fuel and also housing on several sides of the airport.”
Jespersen said it was not known where the drones were being controlled from, but that it could have been from many kilometers away.
One of two tropical depressions that formed off Taiwan yesterday morning could turn into a moderate typhoon by the weekend, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Tropical Depression No. 21 formed at 8am about 1,850km off the southeast coast, CWA forecaster Lee Meng-hsuan (李孟軒) said. The weather system is expected to move northwest as it builds momentum, possibly intensifying this weekend into a typhoon, which would be called Mitag, Lee said. The radius of the storm is expected to reach almost 200km, she said. It is forecast to approach the southeast of Taiwan on Monday next week and pass through the Bashi Channel
WARNING: People in coastal areas need to beware of heavy swells and strong winds, and those in mountainous areas should brace for heavy rain, the CWA said The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday issued sea and land warnings for Typhoon Ragasa, forecasting that it would continue to intensify and affect the nation the most today and tomorrow. People in Hualien and Taitung counties, and mountainous areas in Yilan and Pingtung counties, should brace for damage caused by extremely heavy rain brought by the typhoon’s outer rim, as it was upgraded to a super typhoon yesterday morning, the CWA said. As of 5:30pm yesterday, the storm’s center was about 630km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost tip, moving northwest at 21kph, and its maximum wind speed had reached
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said that it expected to issue a sea warning for Typhoon Ragasa this morning and a land warning at night as it approached Taiwan. Ragasa intensified from a tropical storm into a typhoon at 8am yesterday, the CWA said, adding that at 2pm, it was about 1,110km east-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost tip. The typhoon was moving northwest at 13kph, with sustained winds of up to 119kph and gusts reaching 155kph, the CWA Web site showed. Forecaster Liu Pei-teng (劉沛滕) said that Ragasa was projected to strengthen as it neared the Bashi Channel, with its 200km
PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENTS: Hualien and Taitung counties declared today a typhoon day, while schools and offices in parts of Kaohsiung and Pingtung counties are also to close Typhoon Ragasa was forecast to hit its peak strength and come closest to Taiwan from yesterday afternoon through today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Taiwan proper could be out of the typhoon’s radius by midday and the sea warning might be lifted tonight, it added. CWA senior weather specialist Wu Wan-hua (伍婉華) said that Ragasa’s radius had reached the Hengchun Peninsula by 11am yesterday and was expected to hit Taitung County and Kaohsiung by yesterday evening. Ragasa was forecast to move to Taiwan’s southern offshore areas last night and to its southwestern offshore areas early today, she added. As of 8pm last night,
RSS