Multiple injured after drone smashes into block of flats in Romania - Nato scrambles fighter jets

Multiple people have been injured after a drone smashed into a block of flats in Romania.

Nato has now scrambled several fighter jets, seen above Galati, Romania, to respond to the incident.

Two people have been injured as a result of the drone attack, one of them very seriously.

Both people, a woman and a 14-year-old boy are now receiving medical care and will be transported to the hospital.

The woman has received first-degree burns, and the boy has "allegedly suffered a panic attack", according to Galati's newspaper Viata Libera.

The crash was announced through a Ro-Alert message, issued at around 1.53am.

About 70 people were evacuated from the building after the crash.

Police, ambulance, and SMURD - Romania's supplementary emergency service - were sent to the scene.

Special forces from the Romanian Intelligence Service (SRI) and the Army are also expected to be involved with the response.

An explosive research team of police officers from the Criminal Investigation Department and the National Institute of Forensic Science has now been sent to the scene to urgently investigate the incident.

Specialist officers believe the entire explosive charge within the drone has exploded, meaning there is no need for further evacuations.

Galati police, confirmed the incident to local media and said: "A short time ago, in the municipality of Galați, a drone crashed into a block of flats, the impact being followed by an explosion and the outbreak of a fire in an apartment located on the 10th floor.

"Forces and means of the [Galați police] are intervening on the scene to limit the effects of the incident and secure the area, supported by other MIA forces and specialized SRI teams. Two people who were in the burnt apartment self-evacuated."

Earlier on Thursday, another drone crashed into the Romanian town of Baseti, Maramures County.

Authorities quickly intervened and secured the area, with an urgent investigation to establish the origin of the drone launched.

The mayor of Baseti told Romanian media the drone was large and had a "wingspan of about three metres".

But these two incidents are just the most recent in a series of drone attacks which have now been condemned by President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen.

Standing alongside leaders from Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia, she said: "This is a deliberate strategy from Russia trying to destabilise our democratic societies.

"When Baltic states are being tested, Europe as a whole is being tested."

Just last week, Lithuania was sent into a widespread panic after a drone entered the country's airspace.

The incident marked the first a Nato member state instructed civilians to seek shelter because of drones, as an alert was issued in Vilnius's Parliament building, which sent MPs and ministers into bunkers.

Defence Minister Robertas Kaunas said: "The Nato Air Policing Mission is activated and targeting a drone detected in Lithuanian airspace."

The drone was unable to be found by Nato forces and it is unknown whether it crashed or had left Lithuania.

The Lithuania drone scare was just one day after Estonia said Romanian fighter jets had shot down a drone over its territory, which it suspected was a Ukrainian rocket knocked off course by Russia.

And earlier this month, two Ukrainian drones struck an oil storage site in Latvia because of Russian electronic interference.

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