By Andrius Sytas and Essi LehtoVILNIUS/HELSINKI (Reuters) - Estonian prosecutors said on Friday the Hong Kong-registered NewNew Polar Bear container ship was the main focus of their investigations into the damage of two subsea telecoms cables last month.
It is the first time Estonia has said it was the primary scenario it was investigating.
NewNew Shipping, the owner and operator of the NewNew Polar Bear, has previously declined to comment when contacted by Reuters.
Estonia's prosecutor general said on Friday the main lead they were following was that "damage to the telecom cables between Estonia and Finland and Estonia and Sweden is connected to the vessel Newnew Polar Bear flying the flag of Hong Kong".
Reuters has reported that two vessels, the NewNew Polar Bear and the Russia-flagged Sevmorput, were present near the cables and pipeline around the time of the damage, according to data from MarineTraffic, a ship-tracking and maritime analytics provider.
Persons:
Andrius Sytas, Triinu Olev, Risto Lohi, Elina Valtonen, China, Essi, Terje Solsvik, Christina Fincher, Andrew Heavens
Organizations:
Essi Lehto, NewNew Shipping, Reuters, NATO, Finland's
Locations:
Essi, Essi Lehto VILNIUS, HELSINKI, Hong Kong, Estonia's, Finland, Estonia, China, Baltic, Sweden, Russia, MarineTraffic, Vilnius, Helsinki