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Nord Stream gas leak investigation

Nord Stream incidents couldn’t have been caused by ‘natural reasons’ — German cabinet

The German Interior Ministry said the measures will be adapted to the situation in order to ensure safety of the infrastructure

BERLIN, September 28. /TASS/. The German government believes the incidents at the Nord Stream pipelines couldn’t have been caused by natural reasons, government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit said at a news conference on Wednesday.

"We need to know more details," he said. "However, I also made it clear that, according to our conclusions, that incident can’t have been caused by a natural reason."

When asked if it was a sabotage, the spokesman said he "wouldn’t want to talk about that at the moment."

If the gas came out, he said it would be possible to examine the damage more closely. The spokesman said the incident didn’t carry an immediate threat to environment, but gas harms climate conditions.

The German Interior Ministry said the measures will be adapted to the situation in order to ensure safety of the infrastructure.

On Tuesday, Nord Stream AG said that three of the Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines suffered "unprecedented damage" on Monday, which happened within several hours. Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Moscow was "extremely concerned about this news" and did not rule out that the incidents could have been caused by sabotage.

Later, Swedish seismologists said two explosions had been recorded along the routes of both pipelines on Monday. President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen slammed the incidents as sabotage and warned that "any deliberate disruption is unacceptable [and] will lead to the strongest possible response."

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