Unidentified Drone Crashes in Lithuania, Damages Civilian Car
The head of Lithuania’s National Crisis Management Centre, Vilmantas Vitkauskas, said that the drone that violated Lithuanian airspace on Sunday damaged a civilian car; there are no reports of injuries so far. The details were reported by European Pravda, citing LRT.
What officials said
According to Vitkauskas, the drone, which apparently entered the country on Sunday, fell near a civilian car that was passing by. He said the red warnings not to do so seemed not to have been followed: people may not have heard them, or may have thought it safer to reach the nearest point and take shelter. “It is hard to assess why this happened, but perhaps the most important thing is that nobody was hurt,” he said.
The area where the drone apparently fell has been fenced off and is being examined from the air and on the ground. Some debris and parts have been found, but not all. Once all pieces are located, experts hope to establish the origin. Whether the drone carried explosives is not yet known, Prime Minister Mindaugas Sinkevičius said.
Prime minister’s account
Sinkevičius said that a man driving from Biržai to Pasvalys heard an explosion and debris damaged his car, denting a door. How and why the blast occurred, in the air or after hitting an obstacle such as a tree, is still to be determined. He said the warning system worked but not perfectly, as the alert reached only the Kaunas district, and that by radar data the drone entered Lithuanian airspace from the Polish side. He added that Lithuania will need to consult NATO partners, since such incidents are “not isolated but recurring.”