Hanover Airport disrupted by drone week after Leipzig explosives find

Berlin: Hanover Airport in Germany was disrupted overnight by a drone, police told AFP Tuesday without giving further details, just a week after an explosives-laden drone was discovered at Leipzig Airport.

"The investigation into the drone overflight at Langenhagen Airport on Tuesday has been taken over by the Hanover Central Criminal Investigation Department," a local police spokeswoman told AFP.

Runways at the airport, located north of Hanover, were closed for 90 minutes early Tuesday morning before normal operations resumed, an airport spokeswoman told AFP.

Six flights -- including departures to Turkey, Egypt, Greece, and Spain -- were delayed by 15 to 50 minutes, according to the spokeswoman. A cargo plane from Paris was also diverted to Nuremberg Airport.

The Der Spiegel weekly first reported the incident, citing an internal police report stating that "the possibility of a hybrid activity cannot be excluded". 

The drone went undetected by authorities and airport staff, flying freely for about two hours.

German authorities use the term "hybrid attack" to describe a wide range of incidents -- including sabotage and espionage as well as propaganda operations -- that have increased since the start of the war in Ukraine and are mostly blamed on Russia.

According to the magazine, the police report concludes that it is "currently impossible" to link the Hanover incident to the explosive drone found at Leipzig Airport last week.

Following the Leipzig incident, Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt warned of "a new dimension of threat" and mentioned a potential "hybrid attack scenario" without blaming anyone or any state in particular.

Germany has become Ukraine's leading military backer in Europe following the 2022 Russian attack.