Drone crashes into World Heritage-listed Himeji Castle

KOBE – A drone crashed into World Heritage-listed Himeji Castle on Thursday following a similar incident last year, local government officials said. The small drone hit two parts of the main Daitenshu donjon and fell to the ground at around 12:45 p.m. Two groups of people preparing to fly drones had been seen at the castle site earlier, but their whereabouts were unknown, the officials said, adding no one was injured in the incident. The Himeji city government in Hyogo Prefecture collected the drone wreckage and reported the matter to police, and is checking whether the 17th century castle, a national treasure and one of the first UNESCO World Heritage sites in the country, was damaged. A guard saw a group of four people between 9 a.m. and 10 a.m. and around 10 people between noon and 1 p.m. Both groups packed up their equipment after being warned, according to a city government liaison office at the site.