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A news conference of Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez and Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda at a Lithuanian air base was interrupted on Thursday when Spanish jets were scrambled to respond to the launch of a Russian warplane, Reuters reported.

A live broadcast showed the news conference at Siauliai air base, in front of the nose of a military jet, interrupted after three minutes, as pilots began running towards the plane and climbing inside.

Nauseda briefly continued speaking, until he and Sanchez were led aside. The podiums and flags were removed and media dispersed to clear the way for take-off.

Spanish jets, based in Lithuania on a NATO mission to police Baltic air space, took off at 0855 GMT after reports that a military jet had taken off from Russia's Kaliningrad region without filing a flight plan, said a spokesperson for the Lithuanian army's joint chiefs of staff.

After the take-off, the news conference resumed, and Sanchez thanked the pilots "for the hard work they do to defend the territorial integrity of Lithuania as we just saw."

There was no danger to Sanchez or Nauseda, the Lithuanian president's spokesman said.