A Soviet Submarine that was sunk during the Second World War has been found off the coast of Sweden. Swedish Armed Forces (Försvarsmakten) announced the vessel had been discovered near the island of Öland in the Baltic Sea, an area which Nazi Germany's infamous navy the Kriegsmarine heavily mined during the war.

The vessel is believed to be the S-6 Soviet submarine that sunk in Swedish waters in September 1941, was first discovered by civilian divers this summer. Since then the Swedish salvage ship HMS Belos has located and photographed the wreckage, which displays Russian text as well as the Soviet symbol the hammer and sickle.

A statement on the Swedish military website says, "In the autumn of 1941 several Russian submarines left their home bases to patrol the Baltic Sea. Several of them never returned. One of them has now been found, blown up into large pieces, southeast of Öland".

The military has also posted a video online of the wreckage on the sea bed, showing that the bow and the stern of the submarine had been separated by about 20 metres in the explosion.

Commander Christian Allerman of the Swedish Navy speculated as to how the submarine blew up. "Boats at the time often sailed on the surface in order to quickly flee and/or to recharge their batteries," he noted.

Russian authorities have been contacted in order for relatives and the Russian navy to conduct a memorial ceremony at the site.

This is not the first time Soviet submarines, unofficially nicknamed 'Stalinets', have been found in Scandinavia. In June 2009 divers found the wreck of the S-2 Soviet submarine sunk by German mines in January 1940 with some 50 crew members on board, in the waters between Sweden and Finland.

Written and presented by Alfred Joyner