and Tallinn was transporting Russian steel targeted by European Union sanctions, Finnish Customs said on Thursday. Finnish police on Wednesday detained the Fitburg, a 132-metre-long (433-feet-long) cargo ship en route from St Petersburg, Russia, to Haifa, Israel, and its 14 crew members following suspicion the ship's anchor had damaged the subsea telecoms cable in the Gulf of Finland.

"Preliminary information indicated that the cargo consisted of steel products originating in Russia, which are subject to extensive sanctions imposed on Russia," Finnish Customs said in a statement. The agency therefore carried out an inspection of the ship's cargo late Wednesday. "According to the assessment of experts at Finnish Customs, the structural steel in question falls under the EU's sectoral sanctions," it said. "Import of such sanctioned goods into the EU is prohibited under EU sanctions regulations."

Finnish Customs said it was still investigating "the applicability of EU sanctions legislation to this case." The steel remained impounded pending clarification, it said, and Finnish Customs has opened a preliminary inquiry "with a view to launching a pre-trial investigation into a potential sanctions violation." Finnish police said Wednesday they were investigating the damaged cable incident as "aggravated criminal damage, attempted aggravated criminal damage, and aggravated interference with telecommunications". (Bssnews)