Sweden finds 4th leak in Russian gas pipeline

Sweden has found a new leak in a major undersea Russian pipeline_ which carries Russian natural gas to the EU. This is the instance of leakage discovered this week.

Denmark and Sweden reported gas leaks in the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines earlier_ alerting authorities to the possibility of a deliberate attack.

The European Union said the leaks had been caused by sabotage. Moscow dismissed suggestions elsewhere that it had attacked its own pipelines as "predictable and stupid".

The Swedish coast guard said they had found the fourth leak on Nord Stream 2_ very close to a larger leak found earlier on Nord Stream 1.

The EU previously accused Russia of using gas supplies as a weapon against the West over its support for Ukraine following the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

EU leaders have come together to make clear that any deliberate attack on the continent's energy infrastructure would be met with the "strongest possible response".

Norway said it would deploy its military to protect oil and gas installations.

Neither pipeline is transporting gas at the moment_ although they both contain gas.

The Nord Stream 1 pipeline - which consists of two parallel branches - has not transported any gas since August when Russia closed it down_ saying it needed maintenance.

It stretches 1_200km (745 miles) under the Baltic Sea from the Russian coast near St Petersburg to north-eastern Germany. Its twin pipeline_ Nord Stream 2_ was halted after Russia invaded Ukraine in February.

Seismologists reported underwater blasts before the leaks emerged. Denmark's Defence Command has released footage of the leaks which shows bubbles - the largest is 1km in diameter - at the surface of the Baltic Sea.

"There is no doubt that these were explosions_" said Bjorn Lund of Sweden's National Seismology Centre.

Andrei Kortunov of the Russian International Affairs Council - a Moscow-based think tank - told BBC Radio 4: "They always point finger at Russia but I think since it's the Russian property it would be not very logical for Russia to inflict damage upon it. There are other ways to make European lives harder. They can simply stop the gas deliveries without damaging the infrastructure."