OSLO (Reuters) – Norway police arrested a Russian man at the airport in the arctic town of Tromsoe and charged him with flying a drone, they said on Saturday, marking the second such arrest in one week.
Police seized a large amount of photographic gear, including a drone and several memory cards, during Friday’s arrest of the 51-year-old, who had admitted to flying a drone in Norway, police said.
Sanctions laws forbid Russian companies or citizens from operating aircraft in Norway.
“Among the seized material we have reviewed, we have seen pictures from the airport in Kirkenes and pictures of the defence forces’ Bell helicopter,” police prosecutor Jacob Bergh said in a statement.
The Norwegian Police Security Service (PST) has also been involved in the case, Bergh said.
Police are seeking a court order to detain the man for a four-week period, they said.
The accused told police he entered Norway via the northern border point of Storskog on Thursday and was on his way to the arctic archipelago of Svalbard.
It marks the second arrest in one week of a Russian citizen for flying drones in Norway, with another man detained for an initial two week-period following an arrest at the Storskog border crossing.
Norway has increased its alertness levels following a number of drone sightings close to its oil and gas infrastructure in recent weeks and in response to the Sept. 26 leaks on the Nord Stream gas pipeline in the Baltic Sea.
Norway is now Europe’s largest gas supplier after a sharp reduction in flows from Russia.
(Reporting by Nora Buli, Editing by William Maclean)
