OSLO, Sept 29 (Reuters) – Sweden’s coastguard said on Thursday it had discovered a fourth gas leak in one of the Nord Stream pipelines that was damaged earlier this week, after the first rifts leaked gas into the Baltic Sea on Monday.
The European Union suspects sabotage behind leaks in Russian pipelines to Europe and has vowed a “strong” response to any deliberate disruption of its energy infrastructure.
The spill reported on Thursday is the second to be found in Swedish waters, with two more found in Danish waters.
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Both pipelines, which were out of use at the time of the suspected explosions, have been filled with gas seeping and bubbling from the surface of the Baltic Sea since Monday.
“There are two emission sites in Sweden’s exclusive economic zone, the larger one over Nord Stream 1 and the smaller one over Nord Stream 2,” the coastguard said in a statement.
The distance between the two sites is about 1.8 km (1.1 miles), it added.
Danish officials also said there was a hole in each of the two pipeline sections in their exclusive economic zone.
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Reporting by Terje Solsvik and Stein Jacobsen; Editing by Clarence Fernandez and John Harvey
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