According to the Finnish Transport and Communications Agency Traficom, both cables appear to have been damaged during construction work. The repair work has been completed, and the police have not launched an investigation into the matter, the agency states in a press release.
Traficom further writes that hundreds of cable damages occur annually in Finland, and the majority of these occur in connection with excavation work.
According to the cable owner Global Connect, all customers should have regained internet access.
Police Deny
Sveriges Radio's Ekot, which first reported on the cable breaks, stated this morning that the Finnish police suspected a crime, something that Minister for Civil Defence Carl-Oskar Bohlin (M) also expressed.
"We take this seriously. The Finnish police are investigating what happened, and due to the circumstances surrounding the incident, sabotage is suspected", the minister wrote in a comment to TT.
The suspected sabotage has since been denied by the Finnish police.
"The police are currently not conducting a criminal investigation into the cable break between Finland and Sweden", they write in a statement on their website.
Carl-Oskar Bohlin has subsequently provided a written comment to TT.
"I relayed information from the Swedish Police Authority that, considering the circumstances, they suspected sabotage", he writes.
In Two Places
According to the cable owner Global Connect, two fibre cables were damaged on land in Finland. The cable breaks are said to have occurred at different locations in the Helsinki area, with 3-4 miles between them.
In mid-November, it emerged that two underwater cables had been damaged in the Baltic Sea, one between Finland and Germany, and the other between Sweden and Lithuania. The Swedish police are investigating the incidents as suspected sabotage.
