An airport in the eastern Chinese city of Hangzhou announced on Saturday that it is using new technology to guard against intruding civilian drones and improve flight safety.

The "electric fence" technology will cut signal connection between a drone and its remote controller when the unmanned aircraft is closer than 15 kilometers to the airport. The drone will not receive further flying signals and will be forced to return to its departure site the way it came.

The move comes after an online video clip in January showed a civilian drone approaching a flying aircraft to take photos near the airport.

Hangzhou Xiaoshan International Airport Terminal 3. /VCG Photo

In recent years, civilian drones have been widely used in fields such as agricultural pest control, environmental monitoring and geographic surveying.

The growing popularity of drones in the country has brought some safety concerns, and led to new regulations.

Civilian drones weighing more than 250 grams must be registered under real names from June 1.

The regulator will also identify areas surrounding airports that ban the flying of civilian drones, and work with local governments and public security authorities on unregulated civilian drones.

(Source: Xinhua)