Danish maritime authorities have set up an exclusion zone because of danger to shipping from a suspected act of sabotage on natural gas pipelines running under the Baltic Sea.
The country’s energy agency said ships have been told to stay five nautical miles (9.2 km) from the scene of the leaking Nord Stream 2 pipeline, south-east of the Danish island of Bornholm.
The gas leak was “dangerous for naval traffic”, the Danish Energy Agency said in a statement. “There are no security risks related to the leak outside of the prohibitive zone,” it added.
On Tuesday, Sweden reported a second leak in its own waters very close to the first one. The cause of the leaks was not immediately known. A third leak was reported from Nord Stream 1, which runs parallel to the newer pipeline, officials said.
Some 60,000 ships pass the island every year, and it is being considered as a bunkering hub for sustainable shipping fuels.
Some European politicians claimed the pipelines were deliberately severed. Researchers registered powerful explosions in the areas of the leaks, Sweden's National Seismology Centre told broadcaster SVT.
Operating company Nord Stream 2 AG said it had registered a “rapid gas pressure drop” and was investigating what had gone wrong.
‘Act of sabotage’
The leaks came as a new pipeline was inaugurated on Tuesday taking Norwegian gas through Denmark to Poland in an attempt to limit the hold that Russia has over European gas supplies.
Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki called the pipeline leaks “an act of sabotage” as he joined Danish and Polish leaders to symbolically open a valve on the Baltic Pipe.
The gas from the Baltic Pipe is seen as a partial replacement for Russian gas as Europe scrambles with rising prices and a supply crunch before winter.
The European Union has accused Russia of using its gas supplies to blackmail the continent, which has imposed sanctions on the Vladimir Putin-led nation because of its invasion of Ukraine. Russia has denied the claims.
The Nord Stream 2 pipeline runs more than 1,200 km from Russia to Germany and was filled with gas even though supplies were not flowing to Europe.
The pipeline was completed before the invasion of Ukraine but no gas has been imported because of the conflict.
The parallel Nord Stream 1 has been shut for several weeks after owner Gazprom said it was carrying out maintenance work to fix an earlier leak.
