Russia's new mail delivery drone crashes into wall during inaugural flight

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A postal drone in Russia crashed into a wall and smashed into pieces during its maiden flight.

The unmanned aerial vehicle took off to deliver a small package to a village near Ulan-Ude, a city in Siberia, but hit a three-storey building shortly after lifting off from a mini launch pad in front of a crowd of spectators.

The drone had been touted as a new way to deliver post in the rural Buryatia region, located more than 2,700 miles from the Russian capital Moscow.

Video footage of the crash showed the vehicle taking off before veering into the apartment building and showering onlookers with debris.

No one was harmed in the incident.

Russian Post, whose logo was featured on the launch pad, distanced itself from the crash and said it was only present at the ceremony as a guest.

The drone was manufactured by a company called Rudron/Expeditor 3M.

Other countries have had more success in using drones to deliver packages. In 2016, Amazon started to use the vehicles to deliver small parcels to customers in Cambridge in the UK, through its Prime Air programme.

Last year, Japan Post announced it may start using drones to move packages between post offices as early as 2018, but only in rural areas.

Switzerland’s postal service began testing parcel deliveries by drone in 2015.