Finnish police seize vessel suspected of damaging telecom cables

Finnish authorities have seized a cargo vessel sailing from Russia on suspicion of sabotaging two underwater telecommunications cables in the Baltic Sea, where aseries of similar incidents have occurred.

- Luke Harding

The vessel, the Fitburg, was on its way from St Petersburg to Haifa in Israel. Finnish coastguard officers boarded the ship at 11am, about six hours after disruption to the cables was first reported. Fourteen crew members, including several Russians, were taken into custody.

A helicopter sent to investigate reported that the ship was dragging its anchor along the bottom of the seabed. “At this stage, it is still too early to assess whether this was an intentional act or an accident,” Helsinki’s deputy police chief, Heikki Kopperoinen, told the Finnish newspaper Helsingin Sanomat.