A submarine cable was damaged in the Baltic Sea, the fourth case reported by the Nordic countries in the past two months. View on euronews

After a fiber optic cable was damaged near Sweden, Latvia sent a patrol boat to inspect a suspicious vessel in the Baltic Sea. Sweden later said it seized a vessel believed to have carried out the sabotage.

Swedish authorities have seized a ship suspected of damaging a data cable running under the Baltic Sea to Latvia. The Vezhen - a Maltese-flagged ship - is now anchored outside the Swedish port of Karlskrona.

Swedish authorities have seized a ship over the “aggravated sabotage” of an undersea fibre-optic cable linking Latvia with a strategically important island in Sweden.

The Nordic country has opened an investigation into the damage, just weeks after NATO stepped up its military presence in the area following a series of similar incidents.

Latvia said it had dispatched a warship on Sunday after damage to a fibre optic cable to Sweden that may have been "due to external factors".

A subsea data cable between Latvia and Sweden was damaged early Sunday, sparking a criminal investigation, a third such incident in the Baltic Sea in the past three months.

Sweden's coastguard has intercepted a Bulgarian ship after fiber optic cables between Sweden and Latvia were damaged. Suspected sabotage of such undersea links in the Baltic Sea has been blamed on Russia.

The Arelion submarine cable, which connects the Swedish island of Gotland to Lithuania, and the C-Lion 1 submarine communications cable that runs between Finland's capital Helsinki and the German city of Rostock were also damaged in mid-November near Sweden's territorial waters.

Sweden detained a vessel suspected of damaging a subsea data cable connecting it with Latvia, the third such incident in the Baltic Sea in the past three months.

As tensions rise, NATO has launched Baltic Sentry 2025 to enhance security and resilience. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has emphasized the need for greater coordination in protecting critical infrastructure from sabotage.