By Holger Hansen
BERLIN, Aug 7 (Reuters) - A bus driver knocked an explosive-laden drone out of the air, potentially preventing an attack this week at a German airport that serves as a major NATO and cargo logistics hub, a senior lawmaker said on Friday.
The man spotted the drone flying low while he was working at Leipzig/Halle airport late on Tuesday, then kicked out at it in what Detlef Seif described as a courageous but dangerous act.
The drone, which prosecutors said was equipped with professional explosives and a detonator, then crashed nearby, Seif, from the governing conservative CDU party, told journalists.
DRONE FOUND NEAR UKRAINIAN ANTONOVS, MEDIA REPORTS
Federal prosecutors have launched a counterterrorism probe into what they say was a serious attack that could have impacted foreign and domestic security. The incursion was reported on Wednesday. Seif's statement was the most detailed account to date of how the drone was spotted and stopped.
Authorities have not named the man or said where the drone came from and how it managed to get into a restricted part of the airport.
Leipzig/Halle is the main operational base for NATO's Strategic Airlift International Solution, known as SALIS, which uses Antonovs to deliver equipment to strengthen the defence pact's eastern flank among other missions.
It is also used by logistics companies including DHL.
German authorities have in the past accused Moscow of carrying out hybrid attacks — incidents of aggression that fall short of acts of war.
Moscow has denied those accusations. And Russia's embassy in Berlin did not respond to a Reuters request for comment on the Leipzig/Halle drone incident.
German media reported that the drone was found close to several Ukrainian Antonov An-124 cargo airplanes, among the world's biggest freighters. A Reuters journalist saw police collecting evidence near one of the planes early on Wednesday.
STATE MINISTER PRAISES DRIVER
"A bus driver kicked the drone away while it was flying low. It then crashed and came to rest on the ground," Seif, who is a member of the parliamentary interior committee, said.
"The bus driver's action was very daring and courageous, but also very dangerous. It is possible that his intervention prevented the intended attack."
Armin Schuster, the interior minister for the state of Saxony, where Leipzig/Halle airport is located, praised the bus driver's actions.
"But it's not a model to be emulated. Letting us know would be enough," Schuster told regional broadcaster MDR.
Chancellor Friedrich Merz held a call to discuss the drone incident, a government spokesperson said on Friday, adding that he was in constant contact with Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt and other cabinet members.
(Additional reporting by Thomas Seythal; Writing by Joe Bavier; Editing by Ludwig Burger and Andrew Heavens)
