'They show you're vulnerable' Drone anxiety takes its toll at Nato's borders

The troubling question on the mind of many who have spotted them above is: "Why?

- Daniel Boffey Miranda Bryant

On the west coast of Norway on a cold Friday night in late September, Vegard Rabban was in zero doubt about what he was seeing when he spotted a strange red light between his house and garage.

The father of three, a salmon fisher and firefighter, had just driven his son home from football practice when they were stopped in their tracks by something in the clear sky. "Between the garage and the house, I react to a strange light that is not normally there. Me and my boy see straight away it's a drone," he said. "We stand for two minutes and look and we see the red lights. I could see it was a very big drone. Maybe 1.5 metres wide."

As a regular drone user, he was well aware of the restrictions on drone use near his home close to Ørland airport, a key base for Nato and the Norwegian air force.

It was unusual to see a drone flying at night. But it was not until the next morning, when he read about the drone incursions at Norwegian airports, that he started to think more about it.

His sons were nervous. He tried to calmly explain. "As it stands now we are far away from the war that's happening, but I think someone is watching us and trying to see how we react to drones," he told them.

He was not personally afraid yet, he said. However, he said the drone sightings had already had some psychological effect on Norwegian people, and he believes the situation could escalate fast.

"As more people see the drones more people are asking what is happening. They are curious."

Since the shooting down of three drones in Polish airspace last month there has been a rash of sightings of unmanned aerial vehicles across Europe, including some that have closed major airports. The Danish prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, made an address to her nation after the closure of Copenhagen airport. "We are at the beginning of a hybrid war against Europe," she said.