Finnish authorities sai Tuesday new damage to two fiber-optic cables connecting Finland and Sweden seems to be accidental, despite a minister earlier raising suspicions of potential sabotage.

Global Connect said the internet cables between Sweden and Finland were damaged in two separate places in southern Finland. The company said that 6,000 private customers and some 100 business customers were affected by the rupture.

Earlier, Finnish Transport and Communications Minister Lulu Ranne posted on X that "authorities are investigating the matter together with the company."

"We are taking the situation seriously."

In a message to the news agency AFP, Swedish Civil Defense Minister Carl-Oskar Bohlin said "sabotage" was suspected.

However, on Tuesday afternoon, Finnish police said "there is no reason to suspect any criminal activity" in connection with damage.

Both cables had since been repaired.

Previous breaches raise suspicions of sabotage

This week's incident follows recent breaches of two undersea fiber optic communications cables in the Baltic Sea. In that case, two fiber cables located more than 100 nautical miles (about 200 kilometers) apart in the Baltic Sea bottom were severed, raising suspicions of sabotage.

That rupture occurred on November 17-18 in an area where a China-flagged vessel had been sighted.

Beijing said last week it was ready to assist in the following probe after Sweden asked for cooperation. Both cables were restored as of November 29.

The countries bordering the Baltic Sea consist of eight NATO nations of Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, and Germany, plus Russia.

German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said he believed the cables were likely damaged in an act of sabotage.

Russia has dismissed claims by European officials that Moscow was involved as "absurd" and "laughable."

The November 2024 cable damage took place in the same maritime region where the Nord Stream pipelines underwater explosions and consequent gas leaks occurred. The Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipelines were rendered inoperable in September 2022, some seven months after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

jsi/ab (Reuters, dpa, AFP, AP)