The incident comes after the North American Aerospace Defence Command (NORAD) said last week that NORAD fighters had intercepted two Russian bombers as they carried out sorties in international airspace off the coast of Alaska at the time.

The Spanish military’s General Staff has published on its Twitter page photographs showing NATO warplanes’ interception of what looked like Russian Aerospace Forces aircraft.

The General Staff said that Spanish Air Force’s EF-18M planes from NATO’s Baltic air-policing mission were “scrambled to intercept the aircraft which entered the airspace of the alliance’s eastern flank”.

#FelizDomingo Primer 'Alfa Scramble' de los EF-18M del DAT Vilkas @EjercitoAire 🇪🇸 como parte de la Policía Aérea del Báltico #eAP de la @NATO. Su misión: interceptar una aeronave sin identificar que ha entrado en el espacio aéreo del flanco este de la Alianza #WeAreNATO pic.twitter.com/dLRXLKC9Gu — Estado Mayor Defensa (@EMADmde) 26 мая 2019 г.

There was no immediate word about the identification of the planes that have been intercepted.

The incident comes on the heels of four US Air Force F-22 stealth fighter jets intercepting two Russian bombers and two Su-35s as off the coast of Alaska last week.

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The interception was reported via Twitter by the North American Aerospace Defence Command (NORAD) which underscored that the Russian aircraft remained in international airspace.

The Russian Defence Ministry, for its part, stated that four Russian Aerospace Forces’ Tu-95MS strategic missile carriers were followed by US F-22s as they made scheduled sorties over the neutral waters of the Chukotka, Bering and Okhotsk seas, as well as along the western coast of Alaska and the northern coast of the Aleutian Islands.

Russian strategic and long-range aircraft regularly carry out flights over the Arctic region, the Atlantic Ocean, the Pacific Ocean and the Black Sea. The Russian Defence Ministry has repeatedly underlined that all flights of Russian warplanes are carried out in full accordance with international law, and the rules for the use of airspace over neutral waters.