Bulgarian Embassy in Stockholm in contact with Swedish authorities over the Vezhen ship situation

The Bulgarian Embassy in Stockholm is in contact with the Swedish authorities and is closely following the developments in the case, the Foreign Ministry told BTA.

The Swedish prosecutor's office said earlier that a Bulgarian ship, the Vezhen, had been detained in the Baltic Sea and a preliminary investigation had been launched on suspicion of "sabotage" over a damaged underwater fibre-optic cable linking Latvia and the Swedish island of Gotland.

"It is possible that the Vezhen caused the cable to break, but in any case, I personally do not believe that it is a case of sabotage by our crew," said the CEO of the Bulgarian Maritime Fleet, Captain Alexander Kalchev.

He explained that on the evening of 25 January, the ship was sailing in extremely bad weather - with south-westerly winds of more than 25 metres per second. In the morning, when the wind died down, the crew inspected for damage and found that the left anchor had "slipped" and was clearly dragged along the seabed. Kalchev was adamant that even if the ship had caused the break, it was not deliberate or "sabotage".