New damage to optic fibre cables connecting Finland and Sweden appears accidental: Helsinki

New damage to two optic fibre cables connecting Finland and Sweden appeared accidental, Finnish authorities said on Tuesday after a minister had raised suspicions of a new case of sabotage. 

Finland's Transport and Communications Agency (Traficom) said the two cuts on Monday seemed to have been "ordinary incidents" during "construction work".  

Nordic digital infrastructure provider GlobalConnect told AFP two land-based optic fibre cables connecting Finland and Sweden had been severed on Monday in Finland, causing a "major outage". 

Finnish police said after an investigation that there was "no suspicion of any criminal offence in either case, as the damage was caused by excavation work". 

Both cables had since been repaired, Traficom said. 

International attention focused on the case when it was first reported.

Finnish Transport and Communications Minister Lulu Ranne posted on X that "authorities are investigating the matter in collaboration with the company". 

Sweden's Civil Defence Minister Carl-Oskar Bohlin said in a message to AFP, "The Finnish police are investigating what happened and, given the circumstances, sabotage is suspected."

The incident came two weeks after two telecom cables in the Baltic Sea -- one linking the Swedish island of Gotland to Lithuania, and the other connecting Finland to Germany -- were ruptured amid suspicions of sabotage. 

Finnish, Swedish and Lithuanian authorities have established a team to investigate the damage, with the support of Eurojust, the European Union criminal justice agency. 

Suspicions have focused on a Chinese cargo vessel, the Yi Peng 3, which sailed over the cables around the time they were cut, according to ship tracking sites. There is no official indication that it was involved in the incidents.

Yi Peng 3 has remained anchored in the Kattegat strait between Sweden and Denmark since November 19, monitored by coast guard and navy vessels from Denmark, Germany, and Sweden.

Sweden has said it wants the vessel to move to Swedish waters to "find out exactly what happened".

China's foreign ministry has denied any responsibility in the matter

According to Traficom, 6,000 households and around 100 companies had been affected by the latest cable cuts. GlobalConnect said nearly all had since been reconnected.

One cable was cut by a digger during a "maintainance issue", Samuli Bergstrom, a director at Traficom's Cyber Security Centre told AFP.

Disclaimer: This story has been published from a news agency feed with minimal edits to adhere to WION's style guide. The headline may have been changed to better reflect the content of the story or to make it more suitable for WION audience.