By Necva Tastan Sevinc
ISTANBUL (AA) - Copenhagen and Oslo airports were forced to temporarily close on Monday evening after multiple sightings of unidentified drones in their airspace, authorities said.
Copenhagen police said “three or four large drones” were observed near the Danish capital’s airport around 8.30 pm (1930 GMT) local time.
“The airspace above Copenhagen Airport has been closed since 8:30 p.m. due to the presence of two or three unidentified drones. No aircraft can take off or land at the airport,” airport spokesperson Lise Agerley Kurstein said.
In Norway, Oslo Airport also halted operations for several hours after two separate drone sightings.
“We have made two separate drone sightings,” Monica Fasting, a spokeswoman for Oslo Airport, confirmed Tuesday morning, adding that the airport reopened at 3.15 am local time.
The closures forced several flights to be diverted, while departing services faced long delays and cancellations.
Both airports warned that disruptions would continue through Tuesday as traffic gradually returned to normal.
Danish police official Jakob Hansen said security forces, military, and intelligence services were working jointly with Norwegian authorities to determine the origin of the drones.
“At this stage, we do not know” if the drones could be linked to Russia, Hansen said.
The drone sightings follow a series of recent airspace violations in Europe.
On Sept. 10, a suspected Russian drone strike hit Polish territory, prompting NATO to deploy fighter jets. Similar accusations were made by Romania and Estonia.