Various types of drones spotted near US embassy, Élysée palace, Invalides military museum and Eiffel Tower over two nights this week

French police are investigating several mysterious drone flights over central Paris, months after a spate of unexplained drone sightings over the country’s nuclear plants sparked nervousness.



Over two nights this week drones were spotted near the US embassy, the Élysée palace, the Invalides military museum, the Eiffel Tower and several main roads leading in and out of the French capital.

There have been no claims of responsibility and it is not clear whether the various drones, reportedly of different types and sizes, are linked. The devices are banned over the capital and other built-up zones in France. It is illegal to fly one without a permit.



An al-Jazeera journalist will appear in court next week where he is expected to plead guilty to flying a drone. He and two colleagues were stopped and questioned by police on Wednesday in the Bois de Boulogne park, on the western edge of Paris. They had apparently been using a drone to make a TV report about the Paris drones mystery, and allegedly did not have a permit.

The journalists’ drone, supplied by al-Jazeera’s London office in November, has been confiscated. The two other journalists, who did not operate the drone, were released.

It is unclear whether the mystery flights were the work of pranksters, would-be aerial photographers, tourists or opportunist copycats taking advantage of the media coverage, or whether they may be of more concern.

The drones are not said to be linked to a terrorism threat. They are believed to have been small civilian drones of the kind owned by tens of thousands of people in France, and are likely to have been unable to carry anything more than a small camera. They could have been pre-programmed rather than operated from the ground as they flew.

A government spokesman ruled out a security risk and said drones were not solely a French phenomenon. “There is nothing to worry about,” he said. “Drones have been spotted and investigations launched … We are mobilised on a matter which is and should be taken seriously.”

France has been on high security alert since last month’s terrorist attacks that left 2o people dead including three gunmen.

The sightings have renewed questions about mysterious drone flights over nuclear sites last last year which still have not been explained. Le Figaro reported that police were investigating 56 drone sightings across France since 5 October, when the first drone detected over a nuclear site sparked suspicion. That month the state-run power company EDF filed a complaint with police after detecting small aerial vehicles zipping over seven atomic plants.

The sightings continued into November, and a total of 20 flyovers were reported. The drones’ operators were never found. At the end of January, small drones were spotted near a bay in Brittany that houses four nuclear submarines, one of the most protected sites in the country.

On 20 January a small drone flew for a couple of seconds over the presidential palace, sparking a police investigation. Last October a 24-year-old Israeli tourist spent a night in jail and received a €400 (£290) fine for flying a drone above Notre Dame cathedral.

Faced with the difficulty of intercepting drones and their operators, France has launched a €1m programme aimed at developing ways of detecting them. Le Figaro reported that police have to rigorously check witness accounts of sightings from the public as people were sometimes mistaken, confusing aeroplane lights, streets lamps and even lasers from discos for drones.