Finnish navy says it is too soon to tell whether unidentified object is a submarine, amid tensions after Russian incursions in the region

The Finnish navy has said it dropped three warning charges over an unidentified undersea object in territorial waters close to Helsinki in the early hours of Tuesday morning.

The incident took place at a time of heightened tensions in the region because of Russian air and sea incursions into the territory of neighbouring countries, but a Finnish naval spokesman said it was too early to tell whether the object was a submarine. He said full analysis of sensor data could take days or weeks.

“Our sensors detected something, an uncertain underwater object, at lunchtime on Monday and then again overnight,” Captain Olavi Jantunen said. “Three charges were dropped, but they were warning charges, with a light burst, meant to warn rather than to do any harm to the object.”



A defence ministry statement said: “As part of the tasks to protect territorial integrity, the maritime surveillance system alerted the Finnish Navy of a possible underwater target around midday on 27 April 2015. The possible target was located within territorial waters, close to the limit of territorial waters off Helsinki. A search was then conducted by surface vessels.”



Jantunen said there had been no sign of the object since the charges were dropped by hand from Finnish surface vessels overnight. He added that it was impossible to characterise the nature of the object until a full analysis had been performed on the sensor data.

“A first report could come in a few days, but a full report could take one to three weeks,” he said.



The naval spokesman said that it was highly unusual for such charges to be used. “I have been in the navy since the 1990s and I can’t recall it happening,” Jantunen said.

Last October, the Swedish navy mounted a large-scale hunt for a mystery underwater object spotted close to Stockholm. The Swedish navy deployed battleships, minesweepers, helicopters and 200 personnel but failed to find the craft. Confirming in November that the object had been a submarine of unspecified origin, Sweden’s prime minister, Stefan Löfven, warned that such incursions presented “enormous risks” for those involved and that Sweden would defend its borders “with all available means”.