Norwegian police seized a Russian-crewed ship on suspicion of being involved in causing “serious damage” to a fiber cable in the Baltic Sea between Latvia and Sweden.

Authorities in northern Norway released a vessel that was suspected of the latest data cable breach in the Baltic Sea, saying no evidence had been found linking it to the incident.

Norwegian police have arrested a ship suspected of damaging a telecoms cable between Latvia and Sweden last weekend, according to the Norwegian public broadcaster NRK.

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.

Latvia on Sunday said it had sent a warship to investigate the latest apparent act of sabotage in the Baltic, as Sweden reported at least one undersea optic fibre cable linking the two countries had been damaged.

A subsea cable connecting Latvia to Sweden’s Gotland island is the latest cable to be damaged in the Baltic Sea. Owned by Latvia’s State Radio and Television Centre (LVRTC), the cable’s Ventspils–Gotland segment was damaged early on January 26, at depths of 100m.

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.

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

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.

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.