Finland detains ship after critical undersea cable damaged

By Ivana Kottasová, CNN

(CNN) — Finland has detained a ship after a critical undersea telecommunication cable running between the country and Estonia was damaged Wednesday, Finnish authorities said.

Finnish police said in a statement that the vessel suspected of causing the damage was found with its anchor chain lowered into the sea in Finland’s waters, while the damage site itself was in Estonia’s waters.

Incidents like this have become more frequent in recent years, raising suspicions they are the result of sabotage and prompting NATO to launch a project earlier this year specifically aimed at strengthening the protection of critical undersea infrastructure.

Finnish police did not identify the vessel publicly, but said that Finnish authorities have instructed it to stop and raise the anchor, and then took control of it.

The cable runs between the Finnish capital Helsinki and the Estonian capital Talinn. While the extend of the damage was not immediately clear, the incident was serious enough to cause faults that were detected by the Finnish telecommunications provider Elisa, which operates the link.

The police said they were investigating the incident as aggravated criminal damage, attempted aggravated criminal damage, and aggravated interference with telecommunications.

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