A fiber-optic cable linking Sweden and Finland has reportedly been damaged in two separate locations. Finnish police said on Tuesday that “there is no reason to suspect any criminal activity” in connection with the incident.
Swedish Civil Defense Minister Carl-Oskar Bohlin had suggested earlier in the day that the incident could be a deliberate act, citing the circumstances surrounding the damage.
However, Finnish telecom company Elisa later confirmed that at least one of the breaches was caused by construction work.
Reports emerged on Tuesday of the two cuts, both of which occurred on Finnish soil. The severing of the cable, which connects the Nordic countries, disrupted internet services for thousands of households and businesses in southern Finland.
Global Connect, the line operator, reported that approximately 6,000 households and 100 businesses were affected by the disruption. One of the breaches was repaired overnight, while work on the second was still ongoing.
Swedish media, including SVT and Aftonbladet, initially claimed that Finnish police were investigating the damage as a potential criminal act. However, Finnish authorities later clarified that there was no ongoing investigation into the incident.
“Contrary to media reports, the Finnish police have no ongoing criminal investigation into the damage to the fiber optic cable between Finland and Sweden,” a spokesperson stated.
Despite this, Bohlin maintained that sabotage could be involved, saying, “due to the circumstances surrounding what happened, sabotage is suspected.”
Jaakko Wallenius, safety director at Elisa, confirmed to Helsingin Sanomat that one of the ruptures had been caused by an excavator during construction work. The incident, he said, was reported promptly and was considered a “very ordinary accident.”
Niklas Ekstrom, communications manager at Global Connect, also attributed one of the breaks to construction activities, while the cause of the second breach remains under investigation.
This incident is part of a series of similar disruptions over the past year, with some incidents in the region raising suspicions of sabotage. In October, two undersea cables linking Finland, Germany, and Lithuania were damaged in the Baltic Sea, prompting German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius to suggest the possibility of deliberate sabotage.