Unexplained damage

Defective data cable in the Baltic Sea is being repaired

The Chinese freighter "Yi Peng 3" is suspected to have caused the damage to the data cables.

(Bild: APA/AFP/Ritzau Scanpix/Mikkel Berg Pedersen)

The repair of a damaged data cable between Helsinki and Rostock in the Baltic Sea has begun. The special ship "Cable Vigilance" arrived at the site of the cable break from Calais in France on Monday morning and began the repair work.

According to plan, the C-Lion1 submarine cable should be restored by the end of November, according to the cable operator Cinia. A week ago, the operator discovered a defect in C-Lion1 southeast of the Swedish island of Öland. Since then, communication links via the cable have been interrupted. Shortly afterwards, it became known that less than 24 hours earlier, damage had also occurred to another communication cable in the Baltic Sea between the Swedish island of Gotland and Lithuania.

The cause in both cases has not yet been clarified. The Swedish police have launched an investigation into possible sabotage, and authorities in other countries are also investigating whether the cables were deliberately damaged.

Chinese freighter remains the focus of the investigation
A Chinese ship named "Yi Peng 3" has become the focus of the investigators. According to tracking services, ships from authorities of various NATO countries are in the vicinity of the freighter, which has been anchored for days in the Kattegat between Denmark and Sweden south of the small island of Anholt. It has not yet been officially confirmed whether the "Yi Peng 3" has been detained.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry has said that it is in contact with the parties involved in this case via diplomatic channels. No further information could be provided on the exact circumstances of the Chinese ship, said spokeswoman Mao Ning in Beijing.

The C-Lion1 fiber optic cable runs for 1173 kilometers between Helsinki and Rostock and connects Central European telecommunications networks with Finland and other countries in Northern Europe. The cable break is not said to have caused any major disruption to users' internet connections or data traffic, as operators have been able to switch to other connections.