Drone in Copanca crashes near house, two people evacuated

A Gheran-2 (Shahed 136) drone, loaded with approximately 50 kilograms of explosives, crashed in the immediate vicinity of a residential house in the village of Copanca, Căușeni district, and two local residents were evacuated from the danger zone. The authorities are analyzing several scenarios to neutralize the device, as it poses a major risk of explosion.

Igor Calancea, head of the Căușeni Regional Directorate for Emergency Situations said that the intervention services were alerted at around 01:30, after the fall of a small unmanned aerial vehicle was reported on the outskirts of Copanca.


“Residents in the immediate vicinity of the drone’s location were evacuated. People were warned not to approach this place within a radius of one and a half to two kilometers,” Calancea said.


MP Artemie Cătănoi, present at the scene said that the drone fell right next to a dwelling, after apparently flying over the village.


“This drone is very dangerous because it is located right next to a residential house. As specialists observed, it passed between two electricity pylons, hit trees and bushes, and then crashed. If it had reached the center of the village, it could have been a very big tragedy,” the MP said.


According to him, two elderly people were evacuated from the house located in the immediate vicinity; they took their animals with them and were sheltered in another part of the village.

Specialists from the General Inspectorate for Emergency Situations, the General Police Inspectorate, and National Army sappers are working at the scene. The authorities are considering three options: defusing the explosive charge, moving the drone to a safe location for a controlled detonation, or neutralizing it on the spot, depending on the experts’ assessment.

According to Igor Calancea, the drone is similar to the one previously found in the village of Tudora, Ștefan Vodă district, and this is the first incident of this kind involving an explosive-laden unmanned aerial vehicle in the Căușeni district.

According to information previously communicated by the Air Operations Service of the National Army, the object was detected at 01:03, after it allegedly entered the airspace of the Republic of Moldova in the context of air strikes launched by the Russian Federation on the Odesa region of Ukraine. The authorities noted preliminarily that it is a Gheran-2 (Shahed 136) drone, which exploded near the village of Copanca.

The responsible institutions urge the population not to approach aircraft or suspicious fragments, not to touch them, and to immediately notify the authorities through the 112 Service after reaching a safe area.