Drought reveals Nazi warships and mammoth bones in Danube

Record-low water levels on the Danube River have exposed dozens of World War II German warships and the remains of a woolly mammoth, highlighting the severe drought affecting Central and Eastern Europe and disrupting transport and energy supplies.

Near the Serbian port of Prahovo, where the Danube forms part of the border between Serbia and Romania, at least 20 German warships sunk during World War II have emerged from the riverbed as water levels continue to fall. Some of the vessels are believed to still contain unexploded weapons, according to CBS News.

The ships belonged to Nazi Germany's Black Sea fleet and were deliberately scuttled in September 1944 as German forces retreated from Romania in an attempt to slow the advancing Soviet army.

Ivica Gavrilovic, a longtime resident of Prahovo who takes visitors to the wrecks by boat, said public interest in the vessels remains high despite the difficulties of reaching them.

"People still don't know how to access the ships themselves," he said.

The falling water levels have also affected navigation on the Danube, Europe's second-longest river, which flows through 10 countries. Authorities are working to keep shipping routes open as drought creates increasingly hazardous conditions, while power plants across the region have been pushed closer to shutdown because of reduced water levels.

"As you can see, the (big) ships can't pass anymore," Prahovo resident Krsta Brandic said.

The wrecks have surfaced during previous periods of extreme drought, including in 2022 and 2024, prompting renewed efforts by Serbian authorities, supported by European Union funding, to remove some of the hazardous vessels. Many remain in place because they still contain explosives.

Further downstream in Bulgaria, the drought has also uncovered the remains of a woolly mammoth near the northeastern city of Ruse.

Regional Historical Museum Director Nikolay Nenov said specialists have identified a jawbone, fragments of tusks, part of a shoulder blade and a femur, all of which "very likely" belonged to a young woolly mammoth that lived during the Ice Age.

Nenov said the discovery is significant because the remains are well preserved and, "unlike many previous discoveries ... were concentrated in the same place," suggesting they all came from the same animal.

Woolly mammoths lived alongside early humans, who hunted the animals for food and used their tusks and bones as tools. The species became extinct around 4,000 years ago.

By Sabina Mammadli