The damage to the data cable between the two nations follows incidents of suspected sabotage involving underwater cables in the Baltic Sea.
Finnish authorities are investigating after a data cable running across the land border between Finland and Sweden was damaged, causing an internet outage.
Finland’s Minister of Transport and Communications Lulu Ranne said on Tuesday that officials were looking into the matter along with digital infrastructure firm Global Connect.
“We take the situation seriously,” the minister wrote on X.
Global Connect said the fibre-optic cable was damaged in two separate places in southern Finland on Monday, affecting 6,000 private customers and 100 business clients.
A spokesman for the company said that one incident was related to excavation works and that the second one was still being investigated.
“We have no analysis on this so far,” said Global Connect spokesman Niklas Ekström.
Swedish media reported that Finnish police suspect a criminal offence in connection to the damaged cable.
The incident follows damage to two separate cable lines in the Baltic Sea — one linking Germany and Finland, the other Sweden and Lithuania — last month.
Finnish, Swedish and German authorities have all launched investigations, with Germany’s defence minister claiming that the damage to the cable running to Germany was caused by an act of “sabotage”, although he said the culprit was unknown.
Several European governments and NATO’s secretary-general have accused Russia of ramping up hybrid attacks on Western nations since it launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Moscow has repeatedly denied responsibility for such attacks.
Last week, Sweden asked China to formally cooperate in an investigation into damage to the cables, which took place in the Baltic Sea near a spot where a Chinese-flagged vessel was sighted. Beijing has denied any responsibility but said it was ready to “maintain communication” with Sweden and other countries regarding the incident.
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