Chinese ship captain faces Hong Kong court over Baltic sea cable damage

Finnish authorities allege that the Newnew Polar Bear severed the subsea gas pipeline, the Balticconnector, which links Finland and Estonia under the Baltic Sea, by dragging its anchor along the seabed.

Estonian police, meanwhile, suspect the ship also damaged telecoms cables connecting Estonia to Finland and Sweden on October 7-8, before hitting the gas pipeline on its way to a port near Saint Petersburg in Russia.

Finnish and Estonian investigators, however, have been unable to determine whether the damage was accidental or deliberate, and have not yet provided their conclusions.

(Reporting by James Pomfret in Hong Kong; Additional reporting by Anne Kauranen in Helsinki; Editing by Kate Mayberry)