LONDON, January 31. /TASS/. The crew of the Silver Dania cargo ship detained in Norway consists of eleven people, all of them are Russian citizens, Troms Police District deputy head Einar Lusnes said at a briefing.
"The whole crew consists of 11 Russians. Both the crew and the shipping company are cooperating with the police and have voluntarily agreed to come to [the city of] Tromso," the NRK broadcaster quoted him as saying.
Police are currently questioning the Russians and searching the ship. Police prosecutor Ronny Jorgensen confirmed that the crew is suspected of involvement in damaging a cable that runs along the bottom of the Baltic Sea. He emphasized that the Latvian authorities, at whose request the Silver Dania was detained, are now investigating the possibility that several ships were involved in the incident.
The police have not yet answered TASS' question whether the sailors are being assisted by lawyers and interpreters and whether they have been able to contact the staff of the consular section of the Russian Embassy in Oslo.
According to tracking portals, the Silver Dania left St. Petersburg on January 23. The ship belongs to the Norwegian company Silver Sea and sails under the flag of the kingdom. Silver Sea's head Tormod Fossmark told Agence France-Presse that he ruled out the involvement of his ship in the damage to the submarine cable off the Swedish island of Gotland. According to him, the Silver Dania did not anchor there, which presumably and damaged the cable. According to Fossmark, the ship was taken to port to rule out its involvement in the incident.
Latvia’s State Radio and Television Center (LVRTC) reported on January 26 that the undersea fiber optic cable between Latvia and Sweden had been damaged by an external impact. According to the broadcaster, the data transmission monitoring system detected interruptions on the Ventspils-Gotland section. The LVRTC informed the Latvian Navy about the incident.