The Swedish military has discovered what appears to be a Russian submarine in its waters after divers came across a miniature vessel with Cyrillic letters on the hull Monday morning.
According to Ocean X, the team of divers, the submarine is only 66 feet long and 11.5 feet wide, BBC reports.
A Russian submarine was reportedly spotted in Swedish waters last fall, but a subsequent hunt to track down the vessel in the Stockholm archipelago proved unsuccessful.
The Swedish government at first suspected that the newly found submarine discovered just two miles off Sweden’s eastern coast might have been the one detected last year. But at the time, the Russian Defense Ministry denied that any of its vessels were involved, and Russian media blamed the Swedish government for jumping to conclusions based on nothing more than a grainy photo.
“Last October, authorities in Stockholm claimed to have shocking evidence of a covert Russian incursion,” Sputnik News stated. “A grainy photo taken along the Swedish coast appeared to show two vessels on the horizon. With no other evidence to go on, the government decided the objects were Russian submarines. Unsurprisingly, these claims were disproved only months later.”
Although an investigation by the Swedish navy determined that the photo did reveal a foreign submarine, the nationality of the vessel was unclear.
On Tuesday, the Swedish Coast Guard released a statement confirming that the newly discovered vessel almost certainly is a submarine from World War I called “Som,” which is a Russian word for catfish.
On May 10, 1916, Som collided with a Swedish ship, resulting in the death of 18 men.
“There are no indications that it wouldn’t be Som,” the statement read. “On the contrary, a lot of indications asserts this theory – in particular the construction of the submarine and the name on the submarine from the video material.”
Further analysis is needed for absolute certainty, but because the Coast Guard is very confident in its assessment, it will not participate in the examination.
The submarine is still in good condition, and the hatches were still closed.
Jacob Bojesson contributed to this report.
Follow Jonah Bennett on Twitter
All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.