BREAKING Russia closes airspace after UFO spotted as fighter jets scramble

Airspace within a radius of 120 miles of Russia’s Pulkovo Airport, near St Petersburg, has been closed due to reports of an unidentified aircraft in the vicinity reports the REN TV channel , citing an anonymous source,

“There are military aircraft in the sky, a search is underway for the intruder,” the TV channel reports.

Unconfirmed Russian media reports say that an “unidentified flying object,” possibly a drone, had been spotted over the airport.

READ MORE: Putin’s £274m spy plane destroyed by drone saboteurs at its airbase in Belarus

Information shown on the Flight Radar website shows a number of domestic flights headed for St Petersburg apparently being diverted or sent back to their original point of departure.

The Guardian reports that the stoppage is expected to last until 9am GMT (noon local time).

The airport, which is around 750 miles from the Ukrainian border, is some 14 miles outside of St Petersburg. Allll arrivals and departures were cancelled earlier this morning.

“Pulkovo Airport temporarily does not accept or send aircraft,” the city government said in a statement.

Fact checker Manu Gómez wrote on Twitter that there had been “multiple reports” of an “unidentified object” over the airport.

He said there were at least five Russian military aircraft in the skies en route to intercept the UFO. According to local site 112, there are two fighters in the air – the Su-35 and MiG-31.

Russian outlet Baza said aviation authorities have implemented the “Carpet” plan which calls for the landing of all aircraft apart from military or rescue planes. It’s usually rolled out when unidentified objects are spotted in Russian airspace.

Just yesterday, reports emerged that an advanced spy plane had been destroyed by two drones at a military airbase in Belarus.

The £274 million Beriev A-50U AWACS aircraft was “significantly damaged” in a multi-drone attack by pro-Ukraine partisans from Belarus

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