Sweden is investigating damage to a data cable linked to Latvia, the latest breach in the Baltic Sea region where European authorities are on high alert.

After a fiber optic cable was damaged near Sweden, Latvia sent a patrol boat to inspect a suspicious vessel in the Baltic Sea. Sweden later said it seized a vessel believed to have carried out the sabotage.

The Nordic country has opened an investigation into the damage, just weeks after NATO stepped up its military presence in the area following a series of similar incidents.

Latvian navy coordinating with Nato over incident which comes after military alliance boosted its presence in Baltic Sea in December

Authorities suspect that the cable linking Latvia and Sweden was damaged by an anchor being dragged across the seabed. Read more at straitstimes.com.

Hundreds of Swedish troops arrived in Latvia on Saturday to join a Canadian-led multinational brigade along NATO's eastern flank, a mission Sweden is calling its most significant operation so far as a member of the Western defense alliance.

Latvia said it had dispatched a warship on Sunday after damage to a fibre optic cable to Sweden that may have been "due to external factors".

A subsea data cable between Latvia and Sweden was damaged early Sunday, sparking a criminal investigation, a third such incident in the Baltic Sea in the past three months.

Swedish authorities have seized a ship suspected of damaging a data cable running under the Baltic Sea to Latvia. The Vezhen - a Maltese-flagged ship - is now anchored outside the Swedish port of Karlskrona.

The Arelion submarine cable, which connects the Swedish island of Gotland to Lithuania, and the C-Lion 1 submarine communications cable that runs between Finland's capital Helsinki and the German city of Rostock were also damaged in mid-November near Sweden's territorial waters.

Sweden detained a vessel suspected of damaging a subsea data cable connecting it with Latvia, the third such incident in the Baltic Sea in the past three months.