Finnish police don’t suspect criminal activity regarding damaged data cables in south of country

BERLIN (AP) — Finnish police said Tuesday that “there is no reason to suspect any criminal activity” in connection with damage to two data cables running across the land border between Sweden and Finland, saying the damage was created by excavation work.

The two cables were repaired Tuesday, a day after they were damaged, affecting 6,000 private customers and 100 businesses, a company providing digital infrastructure and data communication in Northern Europe said.

Global Connect said the internet cables were damaged in two separate places in southern Finland on Monday.

The first fiber breakage happened on Monday morning, the other one in the afternoon.

“During the night the first of the cables was repaired, so we could restore internet to approximately 95% of all the customers,” said Global Connect’s spokesman in Sweden, Niklas Ekström, adding that by noon on Tuesday the second cable had also been fixed and that all customers should have internet again.

Similar cable damage happens about every couple of months, but it was unusual that two cables in the same region were damaged on the same day, Ekström told The Associated Press in a telephone interview from Stockholm.

Finland’s minister of transportation and communications, Lulu Ranne, wrote on X that “authorities are investigating the matter together with the company. We take the situation seriously.”

However, on Tuesday afternoon, police in Finland put out a statement saying they had investigated both incidents and that “there is no suspicion of any criminal offense in either case, as the damages were caused by excavation work.”

Police added they would not initiate a criminal investigation into either case.

The incident comes after the rupture of two data cables on the Baltic Sea bed last month. The two, one running from Finland to Germany and the other from Lithuania to Sweden, were both damaged in Swedish waters.

Finnish, Swedish and German authorities launched investigations into that incident.

Germany’s defense minister said at the time the damage appeared to have been caused by sabotage, though there is no proof at present.

Last week, Sweden formally asked China to cooperate in explaining the rupture of the Baltic Sea data cables where a China-flagged vessel had been sighted.

Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.