Drone scare disrupts flights
The government early yesterday warned the public of drones possibly entering its airspace for the first time near Helsinki. Flights were disrupted at the country’s biggest airport, Helsinki-Vantaa, and about 1.8 million residents in the south were told to remain indoors after overnight Ukrainian strikes on Russia near Finland prompted concern that uncrewed aircraft had strayed into the country. The emergency warning was issued at 3:49am and authorities said a drone was expected to be heading toward an area between Helsinki and Porvoo, home to assets including Neste Oyj’s oil refinery on the south coast. The alert was lifted at 7:06am. The Finnish Defense Forces raised their readiness level and scrambled fighter jets, and air traffic at Helsinki-Vantaa airport and shipping traffic in the Gulf of Finland were rerouted. Some flights arriving from Asia were diverted to airports in the northern town of Rovaniemi and Stockholm. The Ministry of the Interior said one drone entered Finnish territory, but its location remains unknown and no damage or casualties have been reported.
Militant attack kills nine
Militants attacked a security compound in the northwest with an explosives-laden truck and gunfire, killing at least nine paramilitary officers, officials said yesterday. The violence on Thursday in Bajaur follows a deadly car bomb and mortar attack in the past week that left 21 people dead in the same restive region bordering Afghanistan. “In the attack, nine paramilitary officers and 10 militants were killed,” a senior security official in Peshawar said, adding that the attackers drove the explosives-loaded vehicle into the compound’s gate. The attackers fled after a prolonged exchange of fire with security personnel, at least 35 of whom were wounded in the assault, the official added. The militant group Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, very active in the region, claimed responsibility for the attack.
