Saint Petersburg, Russia, suspends flights due to an “unidentified object”

Russia temporarily suspended all flights at St Petersburg’s Pulkovo Airport on Tuesday, the city government said.

The decision came amid unconfirmed Russian media reports of an unidentified object such as a drone over the city.

The government of Russia’s second-largest city said on its official Telegram channel that it had suspended all flights at the airport until 12 noon local time (9am GMT). He did not give a reason for the comment.

The state-run Tass news agency, citing an unnamed source, said the airspace within a radius of 200 kilometers (124 miles) from Pulkovo was closed until 1:20 pm local time.

An unconfirmed media report from the Russian online news outlet Baza said that an unidentified object had been spotted in the sky and that fighter jets had been sent to investigate.

Reuters could not immediately confirm this news.

Data from Flightradar showed that a number of domestic flights bound for St. Petersburg were returning to their destinations.

Meanwhile, the airspace closure also appears to be affecting flights en route to the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad, which requires planes to fly over St Petersburg.