Data flowing again

Damaged Arelion cable in the Baltic Sea repaired

The Chinese freighter Yi Peng 3 is suspected of having damaged the data cables. Whether it was intentional or not is the subject of investigations.(Bild: APA/AFP/Ritzau Scanpix/Mikkel Berg Pedersen)

A damaged data cable in the Baltic Sea between Sweden and Lithuania is working again. The Lithuanian subsidiary of the Swedish telecommunications company Telia announced on Thursday evening that the data flow via the cable, which is important for internet traffic, had been restored

Despite the outage, there were no major disruptions, it said. The Arelion communications cable between the Swedish island of Gotland and Lithuania was physically damaged at the beginning of last week - as was another cable between Helsinki in Finland and Rostock just a short time later.

The causes of the damage are still unclear. Finland, Sweden and Lithuania have set up a joint investigation team. 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 in the focus of the investigation
The investigators are focusing on a Chinese ship named "Yi Peng 3", which was in the vicinity of one of the cables at the time of the incident.

At Sweden's request, China declared its willingness to cooperate in the investigation "to find out the truth", as a spokeswoman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Friday. China and Sweden are currently in close contact on the matter, she added.