German police search for possible second drone debris after cargo hub incident as diverted freighter lands with damage

German police are searching for parts of a possible second drone connected to the incident at Leipzig/Halle Airport, Saxony Interior Minister Armin Schuster said Wednesday, as a diverted cargo freighter landed at Hannover with slight damage after an apparent contact with an object in the airspace.

This is a developing story. An earlier version of this article reported that an airport employee found a drone carrying an unknown explosive near the south runway of Leipzig/Halle Airport late Tuesday. Police removed the detonator with an anti-explosives robot. No passengers or staff were hurt. The north runway reopened after about two hours; the south runway was already scheduled for Wednesday maintenance. German Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt, interrupting his vacation, called the incident a "new quality of danger" and a "hybrid attack scenario" — a term German officials use for operations that blur conventional and covert lines, often involving deniable state or proxy actors.

Leipzig/Halle is one of Europe's largest cargo airports, not a passenger hub. A passenger flight and a freighter were diverted during the closure; the freighter later landed at Hannover with slight damage after what authorities are treating as a possible second-drone contact. Schuster said police and prosecutors were working to determine who was behind the device and that the debris search was ongoing. Investigators have not attributed the device to any actor. No group has claimed responsibility. NATO said it was aware and referred questions to Berlin.