Agra, Oct 2 (IANS): A Chinese national was detained for sometime for allegedly flying a drone over the Taj Mahal, police said. He was caught taking aerial shots of the 17th century mausoleum.

The drone and its controller were seized on Tuesday by the police and a micro storage chip was formatted and sent for forensic evaluation to find if it was connected to any satellite.

The 29-year-old tourist, Cui Yu, was however let off after a written apology.

"Cui came to Agra on Monday to visit the Taj. On Tuesday, he went to Mehtab Bagh along with his drone and started recording aerial shots of the mausoleum. Soon Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) spotted the drone and informed local police, who traced the source," SHO Dinesh Kumar said.

"The Chinese national was remotely controlling the drone while hiding in bushes at Mehtab Bagh. As soon he brought the drone down to recover the footage, our team rushed to detain him. He was caught red-handed.

"We seized the drone and cleared the content of the micro chip. It has been sent for forensic tests to trace if was not linked to some satellite," said the officer.