Sweden has formally asked China to cooperate in explaining the recent rupture of two data cables on the Baltic Sea bed in an area where a China-flagged vessel had been sighted, Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said Thursday.

Sweden has sent a formal request to China to cooperate with an investigation into suspected sabotage over the sudden disruption of two submarine internet cables in the Baltic Sea earlier this month, after tracking data linked a Chinese ship to the incidents.

A data cable running across the land border between Sweden and Finland has been damaged, a company providing digital infrastructure and data communication in Northern Europe said Tuesday. Global Connect said the internet cable was damaged in two separate places in southern Finland on Monday,

Sweden has formally asked China to co-operate with an investigation into damage to two cables in the Baltic Sea last month. The cables - one linking Sweden to Lithuania and the other between Finland and Germany - were damaged in Swedish territorial waters in the Baltic Sea on 17 and 18 November.

Two inland fiber optic cables between Sweden and Finland have been cut, with one being damaged during construction.

Finland's transport agency says that fibre-optic cables connecting Finland and Sweden appear to have been cut accidentally. "Both cables appear to have been cut during construction work," Traficom said,