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Stockholm (dpa) - The Swedish government wants to enable investigations on the sunken Baltic Sea ferry "Estonia" and to make changes to the current grave peace.

The aim is for the relevant legislation to be in place by summer, Interior Minister Mikael Damberg told Swedish radio.

The Justice Ministry is working to adjust the Grave Peace Act to allow underwater investigations as requested by the State Average Commission.

A legislative proposal should be ready in March.

The Swedish Average Commission had asked the government to change the grave peace of the "Estonia", which sank more than 26 years ago.

The Commission, together with its partner authorities in Estonia and Finland, wants to investigate a large and long-unknown hole in the hull of the ship, which documentary filmmakers discovered last year with the help of a diving robot.

The commission made it clear in December that it did not want to send people on dives to the wreck.

Instead, the examinations should be carried out with diving robots.

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The "Estonia" sank on the night of September 28, 1994 with 989 people on board on her way from Tallinn to Stockholm off the southern coast of Finland.

852 people died, making the sinking the worst shipping disaster in Europe after the Second World War.

Because many of the dead could not be recovered, the wreck is protected as a resting place and must not be visited - this is stipulated by the Grave Peace Act.

It has not yet been possible to clarify with certainty why the "Estonia" went under.

According to the official investigation report from 1997, the torn off bow visor was the cause of the sinking.

However, survivors and bereaved have long requested that investigations be restarted.

© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210114-99-28131 / 2

SR report (in Swedish)