UPDATE 3-Lithuania tells people to shelter due to drone incursion

Lithuania on Wednesday issued an "air danger" warning asking people ‌to take shelter and suspended traffic at the capital's airport due to a drone violating the country's airspace, the latest in a series of security incidents in the Baltic region.

The NATO and European Union member state suspended train traffic in the Vilnius region, while ‌schools and kindergartens were told to bring children to shelters during the incident, which lasted for nearly an hour. "Immediately take ‌shelter in a safe place, take care of your close ones, await new recommendations," Lithuania's army said in a message sent to people in the capitalVilnius.

Air and train traffic have since resumed, but air warnings were still in place for some parts of the country. A warning was also issued in ⁠the ​Vilnius parliament building, where parliamentarians and ⁠ministers were present.

Speaking to Reuters at an underground shelter, Defence Minister Robertas Kaunas said that military aircraft were seeking to neutralise the threat. "The NATO Air ⁠Policing Mission is activated and targeting a drone detected in Lithuanian airspace," Kaunas said.

A NATO fighter jet on Tuesday shot down a suspected Ukrainian ​drone over Estonia, the Baltic country said. Ukraine has stepped up long-range drone attacks on Russia, including around the ⁠Baltic Sea. Since March, several Ukrainian military drones have strayed into the airspace of NATO members Finland, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, which all border Russia.

The Latvian ⁠government ​last week resigned over its handling of the incursions. Lithuania's national crisis management centre earlier on Wednesday said it had issued an alert in response to a drone in neighbouring Belarus that was seen flying towards Lithuania, adding the drone's origin had ⁠not been confirmed. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday that the Russian military is closely monitoring the situation regarding drones flying ⁠through the Baltic states' airspace, ⁠and is formulating an appropriate response, Russian state news agency TASS reported.

The Baltic countries, all strong backers of Ukraine, have blamed the drone incidents on Moscow, saying that Kyiv has the right ‌to strike Russian ‌military targets.

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