Norwegian police said on Friday they had arrested a Norwegian ship with an all-Russian crew on suspicion of involvement in causing damage to a fibre optic cable in the Baltic Sea.

The arrest took place at the request of Latvian authorities, the police in the northern Norwegian city of Tromsoe said.

"It is suspected that the ship has been involved in serious damage to a fibre cable in the Baltic Sea between Latvia and Sweden," the police said in a statement.

The Norwegian-owned and flagged vessel, named as Silver Dania, had been sailing from St. Petersburg in the Baltic Sea to Murmansk in the Russian Arctic, police said.