Police in Norway said on Friday that they had released a Russian-crewed ship after intercepting the vessel off the northern coast in connection with damage to underwater infrastructure in the Baltic Sea.

"The investigation will continue, but we see no reason for the ship to remain in Tromso any longer," police attorney Ronny Joergensen said in a statement. "No findings have been made linking the ship to the act."

The Norwegian officials were acting on a court request from Latvian authorities after a seabed fiber optic cable was ruptured between Latvia and Sweden.

What do we know about the seized ship?

Norwegian authorities said the vessel was the Norwegian-registered and Norwegian-owned ship Silver Dania.

The ship was sailing between St. Petersburg and Murmansk and the entire crew on board is Russian.

In a statement, police said the ship was brought into port at Tromso early on Friday morning with help from a coastguard tug boat.

The crew and shipping company were said to be cooperating with the Norwegian authorities.

Police said they had boarded the ship to search, conduct interviews and secure evidence.

Tormod Fossmark, CEO of the SilverSea company that owns the ship, denied that the vessel caused any damage. 

"We have no involvement in this whatsoever," Fossmark told the AP news agency.

"We did not have any anchors out or do anything, so that will be confirmed today," he added, expressing hope that the ship would be able to sail onward later on Friday.

Second vessel to be seized over broadcaster cable

Sweden and Latvia are investigating the suspected sabotage with Swedish police also  recently having boarded the Maltese-flagged, Bulgarian-owned cargo ship Vezhen on suspicion it caused the damage.

Norwegian police said both ship seizures were related to the same incident.

Police lawyer Ronny Joergensen told a press conference that the suspicion was that someone on the Silver Dania was involved with the incident.

The cable, running from Ventspils in Latvia to the Swedish island of Gotland was used by Latvian state media. It was reportedly damaged early on Sunday.

Latvia, which deployed a warship in the immediate aftermath, claims the damage was likely caused by "external influence."

Previous incidents of reported data cable breakages on the Baltic seabed have been linked to Russia's shadow fleet — hundreds of aging tankers with opaque ownership structures used to skirt sanctions.

NATO began a new mission dubbed "Baltic Sentry" earlier this month. The monitoring operation involves frigates, maritime patrol aircraft and a fleet of naval drones to provide "enhanced surveillance and deterrence" to protect undersea infrastructure.