Finland Claims Chasing Off Suspected Submarine

Finnish defense forces fired handheld underwater depth charges to chase off a suspected submarine from Finnish territorial waters Tuesday, Finland's Ministry of Defense said.



An unidentified underwater object was detected in the waters outside Helsinki Monday and Tuesday, prompting Finnish authorities to fire warning charges and dispatch ships in the area, the ministry said.



"We strongly suspect that there has been underwater activity that does not belong there," Defense Minister Carl Haglund told Finnish news agency STT Tuesday.



"Of course, it is always serious if our territorial waters have been violated," Haglund said.



The incident, which is being investigated, comes after Swedish military officials confirmed in November that a foreign submarine had illegally operated in Swedish territorial waters in the archipelago of Sweden's capital Stockholm in October.



Tuesday's submarine suspicions in Finland also come in the wake of Nordic countries agreeing to exchange information about their airspace and on how to deal with cyberattacks.



The Nordic countries, including Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Iceland and Finland, said in April that they would conduct joint military training operations.



www.aa.com.tr/en - Brüksel