Nato to boost Baltic Sea presence after suspected cable sabotage

Nato will boost its military presence in the Baltic Sea, the alliance announced yesterday, after the suspected sabotage of an underwater power cable running between Finland and Estonia.

- Shaun Walker

The Estlink 2 submarine cable was disconnected from the grid on Christmas Day, little more than a month after two telecoms cables were severed in Swedish territorial waters.

Finnish authorities seized a ship on Thursday, citing suspicions that the vessel had engaged in "sabotage" to cause the Estlink 2 outage. The Eagle S, which flies under the flag of the Cook Islands in the South Pacific, was en route to Port Said in Egypt.

Yesterday, Finnish police said they had interrogated crew members of the Eagle S, and suspected the vessel of partaking in "aggravated criminal mischief". Investigators believe the ship could have deliberately caused the damage by dragging its anchor along the seabed.