STOCKHOLM, October 21 (RIA Novosti) - Two more sightings of an alleged foreign submarine in the Stockholm archipelago have been made in recent days, bringing the total number of sightings to five, Rear Admiral Anders Grenstad of the Swedish Armed Forces said Tuesday.
«Today, I can tell about two new interesting sightings made by the public. We consider them to be of interest and will continue to work with them,” Grenstad told reporters.
«What we now are searching for is someone or something that has violated Sweden’s territorial integrity. This is completely unacceptable,” he said.
According to the admiral, the Swedish forces have received hundreds of tips and reports of sightings from the public. Five of these are considered to be of interest.
The operation in Stockholm's archipelago is to continue for as long as it is needed, though the Swedish forces are currently not planning to step up their efforts, he said.
The admiral refrained from passing comment on which country the alleged foreign submarine could belong to and reiterated that the ongoing operation is “not a submarine search aimed at battling a foreign opponent with force”.
Grenstad rejected media claims that the ongoing operation could have been triggered by the finding of a radio transmitter from a Russian submarine. Earlier on Tuesday, these claims were also rejected by the Swedish forces’ Supreme Commander Sverker Goranson.
Swedish Armed Forces first launched a major operation off the coast of Stockholm on Friday after receiving information, reportedly from a civilian, about the presence of an unknown underwater object in the region, suspected to be a foreign submarine.
