By Luiza Ilie and Jekaterina Golubkova
BUCHAREST, May 29 (Reuters) - A drone crashed onto the roof of a 10-storey block of flats in the southeastern city of Galati during a Russian overnight attack on neighbouring Ukraine on Friday, causing an explosion and a fire that injured two people, Romanian authorities said.
Romania, a member of both NATO and the European Union, shares a 650-km (400-mile) land border with Ukraine and has seen Russian drones breach its airspace 28 times since Moscow began attacking Kyiv's ports across the Danube river, Romania's defence ministry said on Friday.
Friday's incident was the first time a drone had hit a densely populated area in Romania and caused injuries, and was likely to increase tensions on NATO's eastern flank at a time when Ukraine's allies are worried about the war spilling over its borders.
The ministry added it had recovered drone fragments that fell in Romania 47 times.
Romania's emergency response agency said on Friday a fire broke out in a 10th floor apartment after the drone struck the building's roof and exploded. Two people were receiving medical treatment on site, it said, adding 70 people had evacuated.
It said the drone's entire explosive payload detonated. The fire has since been extinguished.
State news agency Agerpres cited Galati's emergency response agency saying a woman and her child had been taken to hospital with minor injuries while two others had been treated on site for panic attacks.
Deputy Interior Minister Raed Arafat, who is in charge of the emergency response agency, told private broadcaster Digi24 the drone affected two building stairwells and damaged five cars.
ANOTHER DRONE REPORTEDLY FOUND
In a separate incident, a drone without an explosive charge was found around Basesti in Maramures county in northwestern Romania and the area was secured, state TVR broadcaster said late on Thursday, citing local authorities.
The authorities were investigating the origin of the drone, which the report said had a wingspan of about 3 metres (9.84 feet), and how it happened to be in the area, TVR added.
Local authorities in southern Ukraine, meanwhile, said the Izmail port in the Odesa region came under attack from several drones in the early hours of Friday morning.
Izmail, close to the Romanian border, is home to the largest Ukrainian port on the Danube River and is a frequently targeted strategic location.
FIGHTER JETS, HELICOPTERS DEPLOYED
Galati was hit previously in April when a drone damaged an electricity pole and a household annex and officials temporarily evacuated people nearby. They retrieved the drone to detonate its unexploded payload at a remote location.
On Friday, the defence ministry said it scrambled two F-16 fighter jets and a military helicopter to monitor the attack, adding the pilots were authorised to shoot down any drones. The residents of border counties Braila, Galati and Tulcea were warned to take cover.
Romanian law allows it to shoot down drones during peacetime if lives or property are at risk, but it has not yet done so.
Ukrainian drones have strayed into Baltic countries' airspace in recent weeks, sowing confusion and raising tensions with Russia.
(Reporting by Luiza Ilie in Bucharest, Jekaterīna Golubkova in Tokyo, Alan Charlish in Warsaw; Editing by Jacqueline Wong and Kate Mayberry)
