A Nazi shipwreck stuffed with explosives has been raised from a riverbed.
The WWII vessel is the first of around 200 to be recovered from the waterway.
The German naval ships were intentionally sunk on the orders of Rear Admiral, Paul-Willy Zieb, as the Russian Army was fast advancing on their position.
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The vessels were scuttled in the River Danube near the Serbian town of Prahovo in August 1944.
Around 8,000 German soldiers and civilians on board the vessels fled from the Russians on foot.
At the time, the Red Army removed some ships to free up river traffic during the final stages of the war.
No efforts have been made to remove the wrecks since, and they have been obstructing traffic for the past eight decades.
Locals have also slammed the sunken flotilla as an ecological disaster.
During droughts and summer heat, the vessels re-emerge when the river’s water levels drop.
Around 1,000 ships and tourist steamers use the waterway every day.
As a result, the Serbian authorities have now started recovering the wrecks from the riverbed.
The first of around 200 ships was raised on 5 August.
In the coming weeks, authorities plan to remove 21 vessels that belonged to the Danube and Black Sea fleets of the Nazi navy.
Serbian Minister for Transport and Infrastructure, Goran Vesic said a further 80 ships will be raised in the following phase.
Many of the sunken ships are believed to hold cargo of explosives, as reported by Need To Know.
Vesic explained: “Every ship that is taken out goes through a thorough inspection with the dismantling of the explosives left inside them.
“When this process is completed, we will allow the public to see a part of the sunken Nazi fleet that has been making navigation difficult on this part of the Danube for eight decades.”
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