Egypt's military spokesman says the country's naval forces have captured three scuba divers who were trying to sabotage an undersea Internet cable in the Mediterranean, while telecommunications executives blamed a weeklong Internet slowdown on damage caused to another cable by a ship.

Col. Ahmed Mohammed Ali says in an announcement on his official Facebook page on Wednesday that divers were arrested while "cutting the undersea cable" of the country's main communications company, Telecom Egypt. The statement said they were on a boat. It did not further have details on who they were.

Egypt's Internet services have been disrupted since March 22. Telecom Egypt executive manager Mohammed el-Nawawi told the private TV network CBC that the damage was caused by a ship, and there would be a full recovery on Thursday.