Unidentified drone found near railway line in Warmian-Masurian province, police investigating

In brief

• An unidentified civilian drone was found hanging from a power pole near a railway line to Olsztyn in northern Poland.
• The drone has four rotors, a camera, a data storage unit and a battery.
• Anti-terror police, sappers and firefighters are checking the device, and police are looking for its owner.

Drone found near tracks

An unidentified drone was discovered on Wednesday, October 28, in Komorowo Żuławskie, a village in the Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship close to the border with Russia's Kaliningrad Oblast (На півночі Польщі знайшли невідомий дрон біля залізниці: деталі – TSN) (W Polsce, w pobliżu torów kolejowych niedaleko granicy z Rosją, wykryto nieznanego drona | UA.NEWS – ua.news). The device had caught on a support element of a power line, a little more than a metre above the ground (Dron przy torach na Mazurach. Działają służby – Wirtualna Polska) (Dron znaleziony w pobliżu linii kolejowej. Służby na miejscu – RMF24). The area around it is farmland with no residential buildings nearby (Niezidentyfikowany dron przy torach kolejowych. Interweniują służby – Onet) (ЗМІ: у Польщі біля залізничної колії знайшли невідомий дрон – Європейська правда).

Equipment on board

The drone has four rotors and is fitted with a camera and a data storage unit. A battery was also attached to it (Niezidentyfikowany dron znaleziony w Komorowie Żuławskim. Interweniują służby – Dziennik.pl). Reporters at RMF FM said the device appeared to be a commercial model.

Emergency response

Special anti-terror police units from Olsztyn were called to the site. Officers, firefighters and sappers checked the device for any possible explosive threat. Police later said the drone was most likely a civilian model that could have been at the location for some time.

Open questions

Police are trying to establish who owns the drone and how it ended up by the railway. The camera and memory unit may help determine where it came from. Polish media have not linked the find to sabotage, espionage or military activity. Local reports from the same week also described other unidentified or military drones recovered elsewhere in Poland.

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