A stretch of at least 50 meters of the Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline is missing following suspected sabotage in late September in the Baltic Sea, according to first underwater images revealed on Tuesday.
In a video published by the Swedish daily Expressen, the holed gas pipeline is visible for the first time, with pieces of metal shredded by an explosion.
Filmed Monday at around 80 meters depth, the images of one of the four damaged sites reveal that more than 50 meters of the gas pipeline have been destroyed or at least covered by the seabed following the explosions responsible for the damage, according to Expressen.
"Only extreme force can bend metal as thick as we see it," says Trond Larsen, the drone pilot from Norwegian agency Blue Eye Robotics who was in charge of driving the submersible drone that filmed the footage.
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We can “see a large impact on the seabed around the gas pipeline”, he specifies to the Swedish daily.
The two Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines were damaged by at least two explosions in Baltic Sea waters resulting in four leaks.
After huge methane fumes, these have gradually come to an end and the last of them has not been visible on the surface since Friday, according to the Swedish coastguard.
Located in international waters off the Danish island of Bornholm, the damaged sites are two of them in the Danish exclusive economic zone (EEZ) and the other two in that of Sweden.
On October 6, the Swedish authorities announced that they had carried out an underwater inspection of the site and had collected “evidence” confirming the suspicions of a very probable act of sabotage.
On Tuesday, the Danish police announced together with the PET intelligence services that they have also carried out several inspections of the leaks present in the Danish area.
“These confirmed that there was extensive damage to Nord Stream 1 and 2 in the Danish Exclusive Economic Zone and that this damage was caused by powerful explosions,” they said in a statement.
