Swedish authorities say they have detected a Chinese ship moving near two telecoms cables that failed within hours of each other on the Baltic Sea bed in recent days.
Prosecutors in Stockholm have launched a preliminary investigation into suspected sabotage, hours after Germany dubbed the cable failure part of a “hybrid operation”.
On Sunday morning at about 10am, Swedish authorities registered problems with a data cable under the Baltic Sea from the Öland island to Lithuania. At 4am on Monday, telecoms operators in Finland and Germany reported problems with another cable called C-Lion-1.
Both cables were damaged in the Swedish economic zone, prompting prosecutors in Stockholm to take the investigation lead.
They seem to have a decent fleet of fishing vessels, but all their foreign trade on water seems to be with China, via The Yellow Sea