VILNIUS, Jan 27 (Reuters) – Vilnius Airport suspended operations again on Tuesday due to suspected disruption of Lithuania’s airspace by balloons sent from Belarus, authorities said.
The airport closed at 1705 GMT and was scheduled to reopen at 1805 GMT, a National Crisis Management Centre spokesperson told Reuters.
The airport, located some 30 km (19 miles) from the Belarusian border, has been closed more than 10 times since early October over similar incidents. It last had to shut on December 3.
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Lithuania says balloons are sent by smugglers transporting cigarettes from Belarus, but also blames Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, for not stopping what it calls a form of “hybrid attack”.
(Reporting by Andrius Sytas and Johan Ahlander; editing by Gareth Jones)