OSLO: Norway said on Saturday it arrested a Russian national carrying a drone and camera equipment after he was seen taking photos of an airport in the far north, the second such arrest in a week.

Norway is on high alert following reports of mysterious drone sightings close to offshore oil and gas drilling platforms run by the major energy producer.

Last month’s Nord Stream gas pipeline blasts in the Baltic Sea are widely assumed to be the result of sabotage. The 51 year-old Russian man, whose name was not disclosed, was arrested on Friday on suspicion of flying a drone in Norway, to which he confessed.

“Police have confiscated a large amount of photography equipment, including a drone and a cache of memory cards”, police in the northern town of Tromso said in a statement.

The confiscated material included photographs of another airport in the northern town of Kirkenes and the Norwegian military’s Bell helicopters, it said. Norway’s Police Security Service has been called in on the investigation, Tromso police said.

The Scandinavian country, along with several other Western nations, has forbidden Russians and Russian entities from overflying its territory following the February invasion of Ukraine. Breaking that ban is punishable by a three-year prison term.

Published in Dawn, October 16th, 2022