Sabotage attempt could have left entire Swedish holiday island without water
The entire island of Gotland could have been left without water had the possible sabotage not been discovered, Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet Daily reported on Monday, citing anonymous sources.
The area has been cordoned off and technicians are investigating.
"We are aware of an incident that was reported yesterday but it is being handled by police," a Swedish Security Service spokesperson told Reuters.
A police spokesperson declined to comment.
Gotland is Sweden's largest island with a coastline spanning 800 kilometres. The Pippi Longstocking TV series was entirely filmed in the island's main town of Visby - which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The report comes just days after the suspected sabotage of an undersea telecoms cable was discovered just off Gotland. It is not suggested the incidents are related.
Finnish operator Cinia said it had detected problems on its C-Lion1 fibre-optic link connecting Finland and Germany and later confirmed the cable was damaged even as data traffic continued to flow.
Finland's National Bureau of Investigation said a preliminary investigation was launched. Swedish police are also investigating because the breach occurred in Sweden's economic zone.
Sweden's Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said the government was being briefed and that damage to any undersea infrastructure was particularly concerning amid the current security situation.
No suspects had been identified.
Sweden's coast guard deployed a vessel to the area as multiple seabed cables have been damaged in recent months, however, some were ruled accidental.
The Baltic Sea region in general is on alert after a series of power cable, telecom and gas pipeline outages since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022.
The European Commission said it would propose boosting surveillance of undersea cables and establishing a fleet of vessels available to carry out repairs in emergencies.
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KYIV, July 19 (Reuters) - Several nights a week, Daria Slavytska packs a yoga mat, blankets and food into a stroller and descends with her two-year-old Emil into the Kyiv subway. While air raid sirens wail above, the 27-year-old tries to snatch a few hours' sleep safely below ground. For the past two months, Russia has unleashed nighttimedrone and missile assaults on Kyiv in a summer offensive that is straining the city's air defences, and has its 3.7 million residents exhausted and on edge. Other towns and villages have seen far worse since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in early 2022 - especially those close to the frontline far to the east and south. Many have been damaged or occupied as Russia advances, and thousands of people have fled to the capital, considered the best-defended city in the country. But recent heavy attacks are beginning to change the mood. 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"Many people say that if you sleep poorly, your life will turn into hell and your health will suffer," said Kateryna Storozhuk, another Kyiv region resident. "I didn't understand this until it happened to me." Anton Kurapov, post-doctoral scholar at the University of Salzburg's Laboratory for Sleep, Cognition and Consciousness Research, said it was hard to convey to outsiders what it felt like to be under attack. "Imagine a situation where you go out into the street and a person is shot in front of you ... and what fear you experience, your heart sinks," he said. "People experience this every day, this feeling." Kurapov warned that the impact of such stress could result in lifetime consequences, including chronic illnesses. A study he led that was published, opens new tab in the European Journal of Psychotraumatology in August 2024 showed that 88% of Ukrainians surveyed reported bad or very bad sleep quality. 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