Suspected sabotage in the Baltic Sea

Several cable breaks discovered in the Baltic Sea

Double cable breaks have been discovered on a fiber cable between Sweden and Estonia, several media outlets report, citing the Swedish Post and Telecom Agency.

– There is a cable break in two places on the cable, in the Estonian economic zone, says Anders Wallinder, head of the department for preparedness and security protection at PTS, to TT.

The announcement comes shortly after reports of two cable breaks between Finland and Estonia. Wallinder says that the authority currently sees no connection, but that it “notes that they occur at the same time”.

Finnish authorities have seized a ship suspected of causing the cable break between Finland and Estonia. The incident is being investigated as suspected serious damage and suspected serious disruption of postal and telecommunications traffic, writes Hufvudstadsbladet.

14 crew members arrested after suspected cable break

14 crew members have been arrested after Finnish police seized a ship in connection with a suspected cable break in the Baltic Sea, the police said in a statement according to Reuters.

The seized ship, Fitburg, is said to have sailed under the flag of the Caribbean island nation of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. 

Elite force boarded ship – was taken down from helicopter

The Finnish border guard and police seized the ship Fitburg and arrested the crew after boarding it via helicopters, reports Hufvudstadsbladet. The police's elite force participated in the operation.

When the cable break between Finland and Estonia was discovered, the authorities began to map three ships and suspicion quickly fell on the Fitburg.

“With the help of camera images from the helicopter, we could see that the anchor chain was in the sea,” says commander Mikko Simola.

The ship was en route from Saint Petersburg in Russia to Israel. It sails under the flag of the island nation of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and the crew is from Russia, Georgia, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan.

Authorities do not want to speculate on whether any state actor is believed to be behind the suspected