Investigators are working at full pace following the discovery of an explosive-laden drone at Germany's Leipzig/Halle Airport, with confirmation that Semtex plastic explosive was used in the device, dpa learned on Thursday.
Many questions remain unanswered following the incident late on Tuesday. States across Germany are calling for better protection at airports.
According to information provided to dpa, it has now been confirmed that Semtex was among the explosives used to arm the drone.
The plastic explosive is used in commercial blasting operations. Semtex fell into the hands of terrorists on several occasions during the Cold War, and it was used in the Lockerbie bombing of a passenger aircraft over Scotland in December 1988.
Air traffic on the airport's northern runway remained largely at a standstill on Thursday. Around 20 police vehicles were deployed in the immediate vicinity of the northern runway, a dpa reporter observed.
From Thursday morning, aircraft were again taking off and landing on the southern runway, which had previously been closed. It was there that the drone carrying the explosive device was discovered late Tuesday.
According to security sources, it was found near a Ukrainian Antonov AN-124 Condor cargo aircraft. Federal Police specialists defused the device.
After the drone was found, a second, unidentified flying object reportedly collided with the DHL cargo aircraft that had been forced to go around due to the runway closure.
Minor damage was found on the aircraft after it landed in Hanover, it was said. The state criminal investigation office said the search for the second object was to continue on Thursday.
Federal Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt said on Wednesday evening that the incident represented a "new quality of threat" and a "hybrid attack scenario."
"The investigation and police measures are being conducted with the highest priority and are ongoing," a spokesman for the Dresden General Prosecutor's Office said. No further information would be provided at this time, he added.
It also remained unclear whether the Federal Prosecutor's Office in Karlsruhe would take over the investigation. The authority has jurisdiction over cases involving terrorism and espionage.
A special unit at the domestic intelligence agency, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, is examining the incident, a spokesman said. "The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, the Federal Criminal Police Office, the Federal Police and the state security authorities are currently coordinating within the Joint Centre for Countering Hybrid Threats (GAZ-Hybrid) and are jointly analysing the situation," it said.
Dresden aviation expert Hartmut Fricke described the incident as a new dimension of threat to critical infrastructure. Unlike previous drone incidents, the danger was no longer limited to the risk of a collision with an aircraft or damage caused by the drone itself, he said.
An explosive device significantly increases the threat potential, said the professor of air transport technology and logistics at Dresden University of Technology (TU Dresden).
If a deliberate attack attempt were confirmed, the incident showed that Germany is "not yet good at detecting such small objects at critical infrastructure sites," Fricke told dpa.
The number of drone sightings at German airports rose sharply in the first half of 2026. A total of 166 such objects were reported across the country's 15 international commercial airports in the first six months of the year, according to figures from air traffic control authority DFS.
The number was significantly more than in the 101 cases recorded in first half of 2025. At Leipzig/Halle, 18 unauthorized aircraft were spotted.
Several state-level interior ministers called for better protection at airports and greater powers for operators of critical infrastructure.
North Rhine-Westphalian Interior Minister Herbert Reul demanded a swift clarification of who is responsible in similar cases and at what point. "We cannot wait any longer," Reul said. "We must clarify who is responsible for German aviation security."
"State police forces, the Federal Police, aviation authorities and the armed forces must know when who is permitted, able and required to intervene."
The opposition Greens in the lower house of parliament, the Bundestag, called for the National Security Council to convene.
Parliamentary group leader Katharina Dröge told dpa the council - which was created last year by Chancellor Friedrich Merz - must meet without delay to discuss the situation and the necessary consequences. In such a serious situation, she said, neither Merz nor Defence Minister Boris Pistorius can afford to be absent.