A teacher in New York has been arrested for flying and crashing a drone into empty seats during a tennis match at the US Open, police say.

Daniel Verley, 26, has been charged with reckless endangerment and operating a drone in a public park outside of a prescribed area.

Tennis officials say no-one was injured, though the drone briefly interrupted a tennis match.

The incident took place at the Louis Armstrong Stadium on Thursday evening.

One of the players in action at the time, 26th-seed Flavia Pennetta, described hearing the drone fly by, not knowing what it was and fearing the worst.

“With everything going on in the world… I thought, ‘OK, it’s over.’ That’s how things happen,” Ms Pennetta, 33, told the Associated Press news agency.