A suspected drone was found in a forest near the village of Keneliai in Lithuania’s Pasvalys District. According to preliminary information, the aircraft may have been there for several months, LRT reports.
The Emergency Response Centre received a report about the find on September 16 at around 13:06. The drone was discovered by forestry workers who were carrying out work in the forest following a storm.
According to Gedrius Broniušas, head of the Panevėžys regional unit of the State Forest Enterprise, the aircraft was spotted in the grass.
“It is a forest. We were carrying out routine work: after the storm, we were inspecting the areas, preparing to remove trees blown down by the wind and preparing material for logging. During this work, a forester came across and saw this drone in the grass. I don’t know whether it had become overgrown with grass or ended up in the grass when it fell, but overall, it was found in the forest among the grass. According to the forester, it is about 3 meters wide and has the shape of an aircraft,” he said.
According to him, the aircraft appears to be intact, with its fuselage and wings still in place.
Police cordoned off the area where it was found. Military Police officers also arrived at the scene. The “Shield” plan was activated to examine the find, and bomb disposal experts from the police anti-terrorist unit ARAS and Lithuanian military personnel were sent to the site.
According to police spokesman Ramūnas Matonis, the drone in photographs from the scene appears intact and not to have crashed.
The National Crisis Management Center said that, based on a preliminary assessment, the aircraft does not resemble either the Russian Shahed or a Geran-type drone. Experts will determine the exact type of aircraft after examining it.
Ieva Petrauskaitė, elder of Pumpėnai Eldership, said residents had not reported finding the drone. According to her, the site is located quite far from populated areas, with several homesteads, forest and agricultural land nearby.
