Tourists run out of food and water as cruise ship stranded on Danube

• A cruise ship carrying 186 tourists ran aground on the dried-up Danube River in Bulgaria, leading to the evacuation of passengers who had run out of food and water.
• The Danube has reached unprecedented low water levels, such as just 23 centimetres in Budapest, due to a prolonged drought and a renewed heatwave across Western and Central Europe.
• The critically low water levels are severely disrupting tourism, forcing cruise ships to dock far from cities, and halting cargo ship operations.
• Nuclear power plants in Romania and Hungary have been forced to shut down or power down reactors due to insufficient cooling water from the river.
• The receding waters have exposed previously submerged items, including old shipwrecks and a Second World War bomb near Budapest, while the situation is expected to worsen with continued high temperatures.

IN FULL

Police rescue 186 tourists after Europe cruise ship runs aground in dried-up river