Photo: Lehtikuva/Jussi Nukari. Ships from the Finnish Coast Guard sighted at Vuosaari in Helsinki.

The Finnish military have observed an unidentified underwater object outside of the capital Helsinki during the night between Monday and Tuesday. They have detonated warning charges.

Finnish territorial waters are under surveillance around the clock. The first observation was made at 11 p.m. on Monday, and the second at 1.30 am on the night between Monday and Tuesday.

The Finnish Marine immediately sent vessels Hanko and Uusimaa to the spot where the suspected underwater object was sighted. They were joined by The Finnish Coastal Guards vessel Turva.

It was after continuous observations of suspicious sounds during an 1,5 hour period that the commander of Uusimaa decided to detonate warning charges.

Several warning charges were detonated to alert a potential vessel of the Finnish military presence.

Commander Olavi Juntunen, of the Finnish Marine, says that the armed forces has obtained several recordings and technical observations of a foreign underwater object in the area.

The Commander does not want to specify what kind of object that was observed.

– I can't give any details on what type of object it was. We are acting in accordance with protocol for territorial surveillance.

He was not willing to specify if the object is still located outside of Helsinki.

The last time Finland detonated warning charges in it's territorial waters was in 2004.

Finland's territorial waters runs at about 20 kilometres from the shoreline. The underwater object was situated a couple of kilometres from this border.

The Finnish Coastal Guard is investigating the suspected violation of territory.

Commander Ismo Siikaluoma does not wish to comment on the ongoing investigation, and estimates that the results of investigation might be ready in approximately two weeks.

Sweden actively hunted for submarines last autumn. Will Finland contact them and ask them for advice?

– We are professionals at conducting investigations of this kind and we will manage on our own. We will conduct an independent investigation and will not need anyone elses assistance, he says.

"We won't know for sure"

Minister of Defense Carl Haglund says it is theoretically possible that the object was a submarine, but doesn't want to speculate if if belongs to a foreign state.

– There is a strong suspicion that some form of underwater activity that doesn't belong here has occurred.

How can one find out what type of object it was?

– We won't necessarily know for sure.

Earlier you criticized the Swedish management of the submarine hunt, do you feel pressure to do better than them?

– We did not criticize, we merely noted that one should avoid creating unnessesarily huge discussions. That was something that the media interpreted as criticism. We are handling this in a way that we see fit.