Latvian investigators have found no evidence linking a ship docked at the port of Liepaja to the damage caused last week to an underwater telecoms cable in the area, the Baltic country's police said on Monday.
The cable outage occurred on Friday near the Latvian port. Investigators on Sunday said they had boarded a ship and initiated criminal proceedings, although they did not name the vessel.
The Baltic Sea region is on high alert after a string of power cable, telecom link and gas pipeline outages since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022.
The NATO military alliance has boosted its presence with frigates, aircraft and naval drones.
"At present, the information obtained in the criminal case does not indicate the connection of the specific ship with the damage to the optical cable," Latvia's national police said in a statement.
MarineTraffic vessel tracking data show four ships crossing the Lithuania-Latvia cable on January 2 when the damage was first discovered. Three of those ships remained at Liepaja port on Monday morning.
(Reporting by Nerijus Adomaitis and Anna Ringstrom; editing by Terje Solsvik)
