Taiwan’s coast guard detained a cargo ship and its Chinese crew and said it was investigating whether the vessel had deliberately cut an undersea internet cable, in the latest possible damage to the island’s communication lines.

Axar.az reports that citing CNN, the Togo-flagged vessel suspected of damaging the cable – which connected Taiwan to its outlying Penghu Islands – was crewed by eight Chinese nationals, Taiwan’s coast guard said in a statement.

Shortly after the ship dropped anchor in the early hours of Tuesday, Taiwan’s telecom company Chunghwa Telecom detected that the cable had been disconnected.

The coast guard said it intercepted and boarded the vessel, before escorting it back to a port in the city of Tainan for investigation.

Taiwanese authorities said they could not rule out the possibility of a Chinese “gray zone operation,” a coercive or subversive act that falls below the threshold of war.

Beijing accused Taipei of “manipulating” the incident for political purposes.

Zhu Fenglian, a spokesperson for China’s Taiwan Affairs Office, told reporters in Beijing on Wednesday that damage to undersea cables was a “common maritime accident” that occurred more than 100 times a year worldwide.

“While the basic facts and the liability for the accident have not yet been clarified, the Democratic Progressive Party authorities have deliberately exaggerated the situation in an attempt at political manipulation, which will not enjoy popular support,” Zhu added, referring to Taiwan’s ruling party.