Four US soldiers missing in Lithuania, embassy says

PHOTO CAPTION: U.S. Army soldiers are seen during a rifle marksmanship training event in Bemowo Piskie, Poland, April 21, 2020. (U.S. Army photo by Sgt. 1st Class Timothy Hamlin via U.S. Defense Visual Information Distribution Service (DVIDS))

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) -Four U.S. Army soldiers have gone missing in Lithuania during training, and the Baltic country's military and police are searching for them together with the American military, the U.S. embassy in Vilnius said on Wednesday.

The embassy said on social media X that the soldiers went missing in a training area near Pabrade in eastern Lithuania near the border with Belarus. It did not say when they went missing. 

"The soldiers, all from 1st Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division, were conducting scheduled tactical training at the time of the incident," it said. "Search and recovery efforts are underway."

Lithuania's armed forces said in a statement they were informed on Tuesday that four U.S. soldiers and one tracked vehicle were missing. 

"A possible location of the incident has been identified and a search and rescue operation is underway," Lithuania said.

 (Reporting by Anna Ringstrom, editing by Stine Jacobsen and Terje Solsvik)