(CNN) -- The Swedish security police have launched an investigation into "unlawful intelligence activities" conducted by the U.S. Embassy in Stockholm, according to a statement released Saturday.
The investigation was opened one day after the U.S. Embassy there told authorities its employees had been conducting surveillance activities, similar to what was recently discovered in Norway, according to the security police statement.
The work was primarily aimed at protecting the American embassy, the security police said.
The scale of surveillance is not known, but according to the statement, operations have been ongoing since 2000. They were conducted without the knowledge of the Foreign Affairs office, the Justice Department, the security or the local police in Sweden, the statement said.
"I think it's regrettable they have conducted these activities without informing Swedish authorities," Sweden's Justice Minister Beatrice Ask told reporters Saturday, as reported by CNN affiliate TV4.
"I think it is very serious if these activities have been carried out in breach of Swedish law," she added.
The U.S. Embassy in Stockholm released a statement Saturday that recognized the existence of a program to detect suspicious activities around U.S. facilities, and pointed to past terrorist attacks as evidence for why such a program is necessary.
"It is not a secret program, nor is it an intelligence program," the embassy said. "The United States fully respects Swedish law, and welcomes Justice Minister Ask's remarks at her press conference. The U.S. stands ready to answer any questions the Government of Sweden might ask us on this program".
Anders Thornberg, head of the security measures department at the security police, said it is too soon to say whether the work was a breach of Swedish law or not.
CNN
