Luxembourg deploys additional detection assets following drone sightings

BRUSSELS, Sept 20 - Luxembourg's government said on Sunday that additional detection assets have been deployed to strengthen airspace monitoring, after Luxembourg Airport temporarily suspended services late on Friday due to the sighting of drones.

"To strengthen airspace monitoring and analysis capabilities, additional detection assets have been deployed, including resources provided by foreign partners," the government said in a statement.

"These supplementary systems have contributed to further consolidating airspace surveillance and contributed to a better assessment of the situation by the competent authorities," it added.

The government also said that on Saturday evening police "received several reports concerning the suspected presence of drones within national airspace" but that "following verifications, no situation required an operational intervention by the authorities".

Luxembourg's authorities launched an investigation after flight operations had been temporarily suspended on Friday evening following the visual sighting of "unidentified and unauthorized drones".

Prime Minister Luc Frieden told reporters on Saturday that his country had been "confronted with something new for Luxembourg, the presence of potentially bigger drones in the Luxembourg airspace".

"We have observed this over the past few days, which led to the precautionary measure last night," he said.

On Sunday, Luxembourg's government said its drone assessment cell is continuing work with partners to ensure monitoring of the situation. REUTERS