Unidentified drone explodes near major gas pipeline in Bulgaria
An unidentified drone exploded on 8 August near the Bulgaria-Romania border, close to a compressor station on the Trans-Balkan gas pipeline, with no casualties or damage reported.
Bulgarian Prime Minister Rumen Radev said at a press conference that an unidentified drone entered Bulgarian airspace on 8 August after flying in from Romania. The drone exploded roughly one kilometre from a compressor station on the Trans-Balkan gas pipeline, near the former Kardam border crossing between the two countries.
According to Radev, noise from the drone was first picked up by Romanian border police, while a loud explosion was subsequently heard by a border police patrol near General Toshevo. The location of the blast was quickly identified, and the prime minister confirmed there were no casualties and no damage to buildings or infrastructure.
Radev noted that neither Bulgarian nor Romanian authorities detected the drone while it crossed their airspace. Surveillance in the region is now being increased, and an investigation has been opened to determine what type of drone was involved.
Recent incidents over Romania
The incident follows a string of airspace violations over Romania. On 26 July, Romania scrambled a fighter jet to shoot down a drone that had entered its airspace for the third time in three days. The first-ever combat use of an aircraft to down such a drone over Romania took place on 24 July, and the device was later confirmed to be a Shahed-type UAV.
Before that, Russian drones had repeatedly entered Romanian airspace and crashed, mostly in border areas along the Danube, during Russian strikes on Ukrainian ports. The most serious such incident occurred in late May, when a Shahed drone reached the border city of Galați and hit the top floor of a residential building, causing significant damage.
