Finnish Telecom Operator Suspects Undersea Cable Damage Occurred In January

Finnish telecom operator Cinia, which earlier on Feb 10 reported that one of its cables in the Baltic Sea had been ruptured, has revealed that the damage may have occurred on January 26, much earlier than initially reported.

The cause of the damage remains unknown, but authorities in Sweden and Finland are investigating the possibility of sabotage.

The damaged cable C-Lion1 connects Finland and Germany. Swedish and Finnish police are leading the investigation but have not determined how or when the damage occurred.

With a series of similar incidents of undersea infrastructure failures in the Baltic region, officials are cautiously investigating the case.

Since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, there have been multiple cases of power cables, telecom lines, and pipelines being disrupted, often due to ships dragging their anchors.

According to Cinia, data suggests that the damage to the C-Lion1 cable likely took place at 0237 a.m. Finnish time (0037 GMT) on January 26.

This timeline coincides with an outage in another undersea fibre optic cable between Sweden and Latvia, which was reported the same day.

A separate investigation into the Sweden-Latvia cable found that a Maltese-flagged bulk carrier, Vezhen had accidentally severed the cable with its anchor.

On February 3, a Swedish prosecutor determined that while the ship was responsible, there was no foul play involved. MarineTraffic data confirmed that Vezhen was at the location of the damaged Sweden-Latvia cable at 0045 GMT on January 26.

Despite the similarities in timing, Swedish police have not confirmed whether the same vessel or another ship was involved in the C-Lion1 cable damage.

The Bulgarian company Navigation Maritime Bulgare, which owns Vezhen, has not responded to inquiries regarding the matter.

Reference: Reuters

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