![\"Reuters](\"https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/480\/cpsprodpb\/5a8a\/live\/74e773f0-a0ac-11f0-b741-177e3e2c2fc7.jpg.webp\")
Reuters<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\nFlights have resumed at Germany’s Munich airport after unconfirmed drone sightings forced it to suspend operations for the second time in 24 hours.<\/p>\n
In a statement on Friday evening, the airport said that flights were stopped at 21:30 local time (20:30 GMT), with around 6,500 passengers affected.<\/p>\n
At least 17 flights were also grounded in Munich on Thursday evening due to multiple drone sightings in nearby airspace.<\/p>\n
It was the latest in a series of incidents involving drones that have disrupted aviation in Europe in recent weeks.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
On Saturday morning, Munich airport said flights had been “gradually ramped up”, but warned that delays were expected throughout the day.<\/p>\n
In a statement on its website, it urged passengers to continue to check the status of their flight before travelling to the airport.<\/p>\n
On Thursday, authorities in Belgium were also investigating sightings of 15 drones above the Elsenborn military site near the German border, according to Belgian media.<\/p>\n
After the sighting, the drones reportedly flew from Belgium to Germany, where they were also observed by the police in the small town of D\u00fcren, in western Germany.<\/p>\n
Officials have been unable to identify where the drones originated or who operated them.<\/p>\n
Germany’s Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt has said he will raise the matter of anti-drone defences on Saturday at a meeting of European interior ministers, originally billed as a migration summit.<\/p>\n
Earlier on Friday, the minister also promised to bring forward proposed legislation to make it easier for police to ask the military to shoot down drones. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Recent drone sightings across the European Union prompted a leaders’ summit in Copenhagen earlier this week.<\/p>\n Several EU member states have backed plans for a multi-layered “drone wall” to quickly detect, track and destroy Russian drones.<\/p>\n Twenty Russian drones crossed into Poland and Russian MiG-31 jets entered Estonian airspace in separate incidents recently.<\/p>\n Copenhagen and Oslo airports were forced to close after unidentified drones were spotted near airport and military airspaces.<\/p>\n German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said ahead of the summit that airspace incursions were getting worse and that it was “reasonable to assume the drones are coming from Russia”.<\/p>\n Russia has denied any involvement, while Danish authorities say there was no evidence Moscow was involved.<\/p>\n Speaking to a summit in the Black Sea resort city of Sochi on Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin laughed off suggestions he ordered drones to Denmark.<\/p>\n “I won’t do it again. I won’t do it again – not to France or Denmark or Copenhagen,” Putin said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n