French authorities have opened an investigation after a drone flew over the police headquarters and a nearby railway yard in Mulhouse, eastern France, where a train carrying Leclerc tanks was stationed.
According to the Le Monde report, the Mulhouse prosecutor’s office said the investigation aims to identify the pilot or pilots responsible.
Officials have not yet determined whether the flight was deliberate or accidental.
According to the prosecutor’s office, the incident occurred late on Tuesday night when a police officer reported hearing a drone over the courtyard of the Mulhouse police station.
A few minutes later, another drone was spotted over the nearby rail yard, where a military convoy of Leclerc tanks was parked after returning from exercises.
The unlit drone flew over the storage area before disappearing.
The investigation, handled by the Mulhouse police department, covers possible violations including unauthorized overflight of restricted zones and nighttime drone operation.
The incident follows a growing number of suspicious drone sightings over sensitive sites in France and across Europe, raising concerns of potential foreign surveillance, according to the report. Moscow has denied involvement.
Earlier this week, another drone flew illegally over the Eurenco munitions plant in Bergerac, which produces shell propellant powder.
“It was a commercial drone, a DJI-type model of moderate size,” said Lt. Gen. Marc Le Bouil, commander of France’s air defense and air operations, during a parliamentary hearing on Wednesday.
In September, a French base in Mourmelon, where Ukrainian soldiers have trained, was also overflown by drones. Le Bouil cautioned that some suspected drone sightings might actually be misidentified commercial aircraft visible on radar.
Russia’s former president Dmitry Medvedev said that a recent wave of unidentified drones over Europe should make Europeans “feel the danger of war” with Russia.
Writing on Telegram in early October, Medvedev said it “does not matter who launches these drones” over strategic facilities in Germany, Denmark, Norway, and other countries; the key point was psychological.
“The main thing is that narrow-minded Europeans feel on their own skin what the danger of war is. So that they are afraid and tremble like dumb animals in a herd driven to the slaughter,” he wrote.
He listed several “possible versions” for the incidents – from Ukrainian “provocations” and “pro-Russian underground movements” to tests of European air defense systems – but mocked most of them.
Medvedev’s comments echoed those of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who jokingly responded to a question at the Valdai Club about drone flights over Denmark by saying, “I won’t do it anymore.”
Medvedev argued that the real goal of such incidents should be to “spread fear” among Europeans.
Despite the threats, Medvedev insisted Moscow “has no interest in war with Europe” – but mocked Western warnings that Russia could attack NATO within five years.
Earlier this week, President Volodymyr Zelensky warned that Russia could open a second front against another European country even before the war in Ukraine ends, calling it part of Moscow’s broader “hybrid war against Europe.”
Speaking to The Guardian, Zelensky said Putin was testing NATO’s red lines while struggling to make gains in Ukraine.
“He can do that,” Zelensky said when asked if Russia might attack elsewhere in Europe. “We must forget about the skepticism that Putin first wants to occupy Ukraine and then may go somewhere else. He can do both at the same time.”
Zelensky linked recent suspicious drone activity across Europe – including incidents in Poland, Copenhagen, Munich, and Brussels – to Russia’s frustration on the battlefield.