A Norwegian ship suspected of being concerned in “serious damage” to an underwater telecoms cable between Latvia and Sweden has been boarded by police.
The Silver Dania cargo vessel, with an all-Russian crew, was seized by Norway’s authorities following a request by Latvian officers and a Norwegian court docket ruling.
The ship was stopped on Thursday and introduced into the port of Tromso on Friday by the coastguard for inspection.
Harm to an underwater fibre optic cable within the Baltic Sea, working from Ventspils in Latvia, to the Swedish island of Gotland, was detected final Sunday.
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Pic: Reuters
“It is suspected that the ship has been involved in serious damage to a fibre cable in the Baltic Sea between Latvia and Sweden,” Norwegian police stated in a press release.
The Silver Dania’s proprietor, the Silver Sea transport group, denied the vessel was concerned within the injury, Norwegian broadcaster TV2 reported.
It’s the second ship named by investigators amid their inquiries into broken undersea cables.
It comes after Finland individually seized a Russian-linked oil tanker after a cable connecting it and Estonia was minimize as nicely.
The Baltic Sea area has been on excessive alert following a string of energy cable, telecom hyperlink and gasoline pipeline outages since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine started in 2022.
The ship seized by Norway had been crusing from St Petersburg to Murmansk within the Russian Arctic, police stated.
Final Sunday, Swedish police boarded the Maltese-flagged cargo ship Vezhen, on suspicion it broken the cable linking it and Latvia.
Mats Ljungqvist, the Swedish prosecutor dealing with the sabotage investigation in Sweden, stated he believed the Vezhen precipitated the cable injury.
The top of the Bulgarian firm that operates the Vezhen stated on Monday it might need struck the undersea cable with its anchor however denied any malicious intent.
Within the face of the latest developments, NATO boosted its presence within the area.
