The first underwater images taken of the ruptured Nord Stream 1 pipeline reveal the devastating damage caused by what Danish police have described as “powerful explosions” under the Baltic Sea.
Swedish newspaper Expressen on Tuesday published photographs and film footage taken by an underwater drone at the site near the island of Bornholm where the gas pipeline between Russia and Germany ruptured on 26 September.
They appear to show long tears in the seabed near the concrete-reinforced steel pipe that was not merely cracked but torn apart in an act of suspected sabotage. At least 50 metres of the gas pipeline appeared to be missing, Expressen said.
Three separate investigations are currently trying to assess the full extent of the damage to the two twin pipelines, Nord Stream 1 and 2, and collect evidence as to who was behind the sabotage.
A German government official on Monday confirmed there would be no joint investigations team working on clearing up the pipeline blast as initially envisioned, but three separate investigations carried out by Danish, Swedish and German authorities would coordinate closely.
According to German news magazine Der Spiegel, the offer of a joint investigation was rejected by the Swedish side, with a state prosecutor from the country telling Reuters that “there is some information in our investigation that is confidential because it is directly linked to national security”.
A preliminary investigation by Danish authorities established the leak had been caused by “powerful explosions”, Copenhagen police said in a statement on Tuesday.
The further investigation of the 26 September ruptures of the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines in Denmark’s exclusive economic zone would be handled jointly by Copenhagen police and Danish security services.
“It is still too early to say anything about the framework under which the international cooperation with eg Sweden and Germany will run, as it depends on several actors,” Copenhagen police said.
The underwater blasts, which were described as equal to “several hundred kilos of TNT”, destroyed both pipes of the Nord Stream 1 pipeline and one of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline. Russian state-owned gas giant Gazprom said in a statement on 3 October that it was still “technically possible” to transport gas through one of the four pipes, Nord Stream 2B.
