Norway releases a ship initially suspected of involvement in damage to a Baltic Sea cable

OSLO, Norway (AP) - A Norwegian-owned and Russian-crewed ship that authorities initially suspected may have been involved in damage to an underwater fiber optic cable connecting Latvia and the Swedish island of Gotland has been released.

Norwegian police said late Friday that no findings had been made that would have linked the ship, the Silver Dania, "to the act."

"Tromsø police district has now conducted a number of investigative steps and secured what we see as necessary considering the request from Latvia. The investigation will continue, but we see no reason for the ship to remain in Tromsø any longer," Tromsø police attorney Ronny Jørgensen said late Friday.

The Silver Dania was stopped on Thursday evening and brought into the port of Tromsø in northern Norway on Friday morning by a Norwegian coast guard vessel for inspection. They said that followed a request from Latvian authorities and a ruling by a Norwegian court.

Police at the time said there was suspicion that the ship, which was sailing between the Russian ports of St. Petersburg and Murmansk when it was detained, had been involved in serious cable damage that was discovered last weekend in the Baltic Sea.

The authorities didn't elaborate, but said they were searching the ship and conducting interviews.

Tormod Fossmark, CEO of the SilverSea company that owns the ship, denied that the vessel caused any damage when it sailed through the area of the cable and said that the company was cooperating with authorities on what it considered a "serious" matter.

"We have no involvement in this whatsoever," Fossmark told The Associated Press. "We did not have any anchors out or do anything, so that will be confirmed today" in the investigation, he said.

He stressed that she ship's tracking data shows no irregularities in its journey.

Fossmark said he hoped the vessel, which wasn't carrying any cargo, would be able to sail onward later in the day.

Damage to the data transmission cable running from Ventspils, Latvia, to Gotland was detected on Sunday. Later that day, Swedish prosecutors announced that they had opened a preliminary investigation into suspected sabotage and ordered the detention of a vessel suspected of damaging the cable, the Malta-flagged Vezhen.

That ship's Bulgarian owner said that it was possible that the Vezhen had accidentally caused a cable to break but dismissed any possibility of sabotage or any other action on the part of the crew.