* 17 flights cancelled after drone sightings on eve of national holiday * Incident follows similar disruptions in Scandinavia last week * EU leaders this week backed anti-drone measures to counter threats * Ministers considering police shoot-down powers (Changes sourcing in paragraph 4, adds Belgian investigation paragraph 9, Danish intelligence assessment in paragraph 10-11, interior minister press conference in paragraph 12-13) By Ayhan Uyanik and Tilman Blasshofer MUNICH/SAARBRUECKEN, Germany, Oct 3 (Reuters) – Drone sightings overnight at Germany's Munich airport led to the cancellation and diversion of dozens of flights on the eve of a national holiday, leaving nearly 3,000 passengers stranded and leading politicians to promise tough new measures allowing for drones to be shot down. The Munich airport disruption was the latest in a series of similar incidents that have rattled European aviation, raising concerns about deniable hybrid attacks on Ukraine's European allies, possibly directed by Russia. The Kremlin has indeed denied any involvement in the incidents. The airport said several drone sightings late on Thursday evening had forced air traffic control to suspend operations, leading to the cancellation of 17 flights and disrupting travel for nearly 3,000 passengers, who were provided with camp beds, blankets and food. Another 15 arriving flights were diverted around the region. "Our police must get the power to shoot drones down," said Markus Soeder, premier of Bavaria, of which Munich is the capital, on social media, promising state-level emergency legislation to allow this. "We need sovereignty over our airspace." UNKNOWN TYPES As airport operations resumed early on Friday morning, passengers checking in for a flight to Varna in Bulgaria, and the departure board showed only a few flights had been cancelled. A flight from Bangkok was the first of the day to land at around 5:25 a.m. (0325 GMT). Public broadcaster BR said local and national police were investigating the incident. State and federal police had no immediate comment. The drones were sighted in the late evening above the airport, a police spokesperson told newspaper Bild. But because it was dark, the sizes and types of the drones could not be determined, he added. Police did not immediately respond to Reuters' requests for comment. The drone incidents follow airspace intrusions last week that temporarily shut airports in Denmark and Norway, which led European Union leaders at a Copenhagen summit to back plans to bolster the bloc's defences with anti-drone measures. HYBRID WARFARE In Brussels, the Belgian defence ministry said it had opened an investigation into several drones flying over the military base at Elsenborn, on the German border, overnight. Denmark's intelligence service assesses that Russia is conducting hybrid warfare against the West. "Russia is using military means, including in an aggressive way, to put pressure on us without crossing the line into armed conflict in a traditional sense," said Thomas Ahrenkiel, head of Denmark's military intelligence service. Interior minister Alexander Dobrindt, who already plans legislation letting armed forces help shoot down drones, said he would raise drone defences at a meeting of European interior ministers on Saturday that had originally been billed as a summit on migration. "We must ensure that drone defence technology is increasingly developed in Europe in cooperation with partners from Israel and Ukraine," he told reporters. Legislation due in parliament next week would allow police to ask the armed forces for help shooting drones down, he said. AIRSPACE VIOLATED Russian President Vladimir Putin joked on Thursday that he would not fly drones over Denmark anymore, but Moscow has denied responsibility for the incidents. European authorities have accused Russia of brazen violations of the region's airspace, including recent incursions by drones over Poland and fighter jets over Estonia, while Moscow has in turn accused NATO of provocations. The airport disruption in Munich added to a tense week for the city after its popular Oktoberfest was closed temporarily due to a bomb threat and the separate discovery of explosives in a residential building in the city's north. Friday is German Reunification Day, a public holiday. (Reporting by Ayhan Uyanik in Munich and Gnaneshwar Rajan in Bengaluru; writing by Thomas Escritt, Editing by Jamie Freed, Hugh Lawson, William Maclean)
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