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Boats sink in Belgrade as thaw causes Danube ice chaos
A rapid thaw has brought chaos to the River Danube in the Serbian capital Belgrade, where ice damaged boats, pontoons and floating restaurants.
The thick ice covered one of Europe’s busiest waterways during the recent freeze, but began to break up on Sunday as temperatures rose.
In Belgrade, boats crashed into each other but there were no immediate reports of casualties.
One boat owner said the ice had moved so fast, boats could not be saved.
“The damage will be hundreds of thousands of euros for sure,” Dragan Jovanovic was quoted as saying by Reuters news agency.
Another boat owner, Mihailo Svilaric, told Reuters only a “handful” of boats remained intact out of about 100 moored in the Serbian capital’s Kapetanija marina.
Debris was scattered among the breaking ice for hundreds of metres along the river, and several floating restaurants, barges and boats were beached on river banks after the ice snapped anchor lines.
Local media reported that Belgrade emergency services said there was no ice risk to bridges and other infrastructure in the city, and there was no threat of flooding.
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