ZAGREB (AFP) - A Russian-made military drone crashed in the Croatian capital Zagreb and damaged several vehicles but no one was injured, officials said on Friday (March 11).
"A military drone produced by Russia, according to our information, crashed" late Thursday, Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said.
"At this moment we do not know exactly whether it was owned by the Russian or Ukrainian army," added Plenkovic who spoke to Croatian reporters in Versailles where he is attending a European Union summit.
The drone entered Croatia's airspace from Hungary, the prime minister said.
He cited Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban as saying it had entered Hungary from Romania, Plenkovic added.
All three countries are Nato members.
Local media earlier on Friday quoted military aviation experts as saying the device could have been a Soviet-era Tu-141 reconnaissance drone used by Ukraine.
Plenkovic added the cause of the incident had not yet been determined.
Zagreb also contacted Kyiv to ask whether it had any information on the drone that crashed around 11pm on Thursday (6am on Friday, Singapore time).
Croatia's chief of defence, Admiral Robert Hranj, labelled it a "pretty serious incident" and said Zagreb was discussing the incident with Nato.
A Nato official told AFP that the military alliance's "integrated air and missile defence tracked the flight path of an object which subsequently crashed in Zagreb".
Croatia has announced it is investigating the incident, the official said.
Local security experts labelled the incident a Nato failure as the drone flew undisturbed over its three member states before crashing.
President Zoran Milanovic demanded an investigation into how it could have flied for "nearly an hour over a Nato member territory without anyone noticing it," referring to Hungary.
"It's not just a matter of Hungary, it's a matter of Nato joint command," he said.
Several parked vehicles were damaged in the crash, but no one was hurt, the interior ministry said in a statement earlier on Friday.
Police rushed to the scene after residents reported that they "felt a detonation preceded by an object falling from the sky", it said.
In a park close to the Jarun lake, some 6km from the city centre, police found a crater and two parachutes nearby, it added.
Police sealed off the site, close to a students residence, and temporarily halted public transport in the area.
"Something was falling from the sky and there was a red light," economy student Josip K. told the Jutarnji List daily website.
"The object made a loud sound, like it was accelerating, so people passing by a parking lot started to run away," he said.
Zagreb is located some 550km flying distance from the border with Ukraine, which Russia invaded on Feb 24.
