Two underwater explosions “most likely due to detonations” were recorded near the sites of the Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipeline leaks shortly before they were detected, a Swedish seismic institute said on Tuesday.
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A first “massive emission of energy” with a magnitude of 1.9 was recorded overnight from Sunday to Monday at 02:03 (00:03 GMT) southeast of the Danish island of Bornholm, then another of magnitude 2.3 at 7:04 p.m. (5:04 p.m. GMT) Monday evening in the northeast of the island, Peter Schmidt, of the Swedish National Seismic Network, told AFP.
“We interpret it as coming with the greatest probability from some form of detonation,” he said.
The Norwegian Independent Seismological Institute (Norsar) confirmed in the wake of having also recorded “a small explosion” early Monday morning and another “more powerful” Monday evening, which it suspects of being deliberate.
“It is an explosion of importance. It is tempting to think that it was the work of someone who knew what he was doing,” its director, Anne Strømmen Lycke, told AFP.
“With such large energy emissions, there is not much other than an explosion that might have caused it,” said Mr. Schmidt.
The tremors were “very sudden”, notes the seismologist from the Swedish University of Uppsala.
The three large leaks identified since Monday off the Danish island of Bornholm are visible on the surface with bubbling ranging from 200 meters to 1 kilometer in diameter, according to images from the Danish army.
The unexplained leaks are the result of “a planned terrorist attack” by Moscow ” once morest the European Union”, Ukraine said on Tuesday, as suspicions of sabotage multiply.
The Kremlin said it was “extremely concerned” by the leaks detected on the Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines, considering that “no” hypothesis should be excluded, including that of sabotage.