India, April 4 -- An unmanned aircraft or drone reportedly being tested by a private company crashed in an agricultural field in a village in Saifai, Uttar Pradesh, on Saturday, triggering panic at a time when news cycles are dominated by the US-Iran war in West Asia.

Former chief minister Akhilesh Yadav lambasted the state's BJP government for not giving prior information about such trials to the public.

"People thought it might be some missile that had strayed from the war zone and fallen here," he wrote on X, along with a short video clip of the drone.

"If this was part of any government test or experiment, the citizens of the state should have been informed and alerted in advance. When there's no certainty whether the drone will fl...