Sweden is investigating a potential breach of an undersea cable off the nation’s southwestern coast within the Baltic Sea, the coastguard stated on Friday, in an space the place a number of seabed cables have been broken in latest months.
The Baltic Sea area is on alert and the NATO alliance has boosted its presence after a sequence of energy cable, telecom and gasoline pipeline outages since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022. Most had been brought on by civilian ships dragging their anchors.
“We’ve obtained details about a suspected cable breach and the prosecution service has chosen to start out a preliminary investigation,” a coastguard spokesperson informed Reuters.
A coastguard vessel has been despatched to the scene off the island of Gotland, the spokesperson added.
Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson stated the federal government was being briefed and that harm to any undersea infrastructure was notably regarding amid the present safety scenario.
It was not instantly clear which kind of cable was concerned or when the potential harm had taken place.
The coastguard declined to remark additional.
(Reporting by Johan Ahlander and Simon Johnson, Essi Lehto in Helsinki and Louise Breusch Rasmussen in Copenhagen; enhancing by Terje Solsvik and Helen Popper)
{Photograph}: Estonian naval ships sail within the Baltic Sea on Jan. 9, 2025, as a part of stepped-up NATO patrols within the area following suspected sabotage of undersea cables. (AP Picture/Hendrik Osula, File)
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