Drone explodes after crashing into lake in eastern Latvia
A drone crashed into a lake in Latvia (illustrative photo: t.me/kyiv_n)
A drone crashed into Lake Drīdzis in Krāslava district, eastern Latvia, on the morning of May 23 and exploded upon impact with the water, reports the Latvian State Police.
At around 8:00 a.m., the State Police received a report from local residents about an unmanned aerial vehicle that had crashed into Lake Drīdzis in Kombuļi parish.
According to police, no one was injured in the incident. Officers arrived at the scene and began inspecting the area, where they found debris believed to belong to the drone.
The search area was large, so additional forces were deployed, including a State Police unit, personnel of the State Fire and Rescue Service, and the National Armed Forces.
A part of a drone that crashed into Lake Drīdzis in the eastern Latvian Krāslava district (photo: Latvian State Police)
Police urged residents not to approach the scene and to follow official information updates.
Latvian acting Prime Minister Evika Siliņa said she remains in contact with the services working in the area of the explosion.
"I expect from the services as detailed information as possible about the circumstances of the incident and further actions. I urge residents to follow official information," she wrote on X.
Eyewitness Vadim Stepanov, who was fishing on the lake at the time of the incident, told Latvian Radio (LSM) that he saw the aircraft crash.
"At first, I thought it was a crop duster. Then I realized it was something smaller. It sounded like a moped. That's when I understood something was wrong. It flew over the lake, turned back, flew over the island, and then its engine shut down. It went into a dive toward the lake and exploded," he said.
According to the eyewitness, he was about 1-1.5 kilometers away from the crash site.
The National Armed Forces told the LETA news agency that sensors did not detect the drone entering Latvian territory, so the mass SMS alert system was not activated for residents.
As previously reported, on May 7, two Ukrainian drones that arrived from the direction of Russia struck oil storage facilities in Latvia's Rēzekne.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha confirmed that the drones entered Latvian airspace due to Russian electronic warfare systems.
The incident led to the resignation of Latvian Defense Minister Andris Sprūds and later put the entire government at risk.
Starting on May 19, Latvia declared air raid alerts for three days in a row due to the drone threat.
