Oct. 8 (UPI) — Federal authorities in Germany were granted permission to shoot down drones following a series of recent sightings of unknown drones spotted near Munich.
The German government’s cabinet on Wednesday signed-off on the new reform package that now awaits approval of the Bundestag, the country’s parliament.
The move came after drones were seen at Munich Airport last week, which led to air traffic control suspensions and thousands of flights impacted directly.
“Drone incidents threaten our safety,” said Germany’s Chancellor Friedrich Merz.
Germany now joins Britain, France, Romania and Lithuania in extending police powers to down the flying objects.
“We will not allow that,” Merz, leader of Germany’s Christian Democratic Union party, said Wednesday on social media.
“We are strengthening the powers of the federal police so that drones can be detected and intercepted more quickly in future,” he added.
In addition, other rogue drones have been detected in Denmark, Lithuania, Finland, Estonia, Poland and Romania that have interrupted air traffic on the continent in recent weeks.
Officials in Denmark purport it to be a “professional” act by an unknown actor but other European Union leaders, including Merz, have pointed to Russia as the culprit.
Moscow, however, has denied the allegations.
It followed a similar pattern of unexplained drone flights earlier this year in the United States.
Meanwhile, authorities announced Wednesday that Russian drones attacked and seriously damaged a Ukrainian thermal power plant overnight in Russia’s escalating war in Ukraine and eastern Europe.