A steam tugboat wreck over 100 years old and an ancient Roman bridge have emerged from shrinking waters as Europe suffers its worse drought in 70 years.

Warships, mammoth bones and parts of ancient constructions have all become visible due to the slumping waters of the Danube, Rhine, Tiber and other rivers in the scorching drought that has also disrupted trade, power and water supplies.

Since spring, European countries have experienced extreme heat and dry conditions, leading to drought conditions and receding water levels.

But it has made for archaeological finds - earlier this month, the rusted hull of what was once called the Slovenian surfaced from the Sava River, near the Serbian town of Sremska Mitrovica.

While parts have appeared above the surface before, locals say the relic - which survived two World Wars - has never been so exposed.

"It's been several years since it was last seen, so there is quite an interest," said historian Andrija Popovic, who is the head of the town museum.

"It's truly something you don't see every day."

According to Mr Popovic, the Slovenian was made in 1913 in a shipyard in Budapest, Hungary, which was then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

The steam engine-powered vessel measured roughly 177 feet (54m) in length and was initially named Vag, which is Hungarian for Vah, Slovakia's longest river.

Mr Popovic said that the boat pulled heavy cargo between Budapest and other towns along the Danube until the First World War, when it largely paused its routes.

It was then owned and renamed by the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenians - which would later become Yugoslavia - as part of war reparations until occupation by Nazi Germany in the Second World War.

After Belgrade was liberated by anti-fascist forces in 1944, they used the boat to transport equipment and wounded.

But, Mr Popovic said, the Slovenian met its end when it hit a German mine in late April 1945.

"It sank and has stayed in the same place since that day."

Roman bridges and Nazi warships emerge

It's the latest such discovery due to the extreme heat in Europe, primarily driven by manmade climate change.

Water levels in the river Danube had fallen so low due to this summer's dry weather that dozens of sunken Nazi warships - some still with weapons - came into view in Serbia.

They belonged to Germany's Black Sea fleet that the Nazis deliberately sank near the end of the conflict as Soviet forces advanced deeper into Europe.

Other discoveries have been found in Italy, undergoing its worst drought in 70 years.

As the Tiber River dried, receding waters have exposed the piers of an ancient bridge thought to date from as early as 39 AD.

'Nero's Bridge' as it is known, after the former Roman emperor, is situated near St Peter's Basilica in the Vatican and is believed to have fallen into disrepair by the 3rd century.

Heatwaves 'will become a new normalcy'

The rivers drying have also caused major issues for European countries - Hungary's prime minister, Peter Magyar, said earlier this month that the Paks nuclear plant was close to a complete shutdown as water levels in the Danube fell too low.

Three of the four reactors at the Paks plant, south of Budapest, had been shut down, leaving the facility operating at just over 10% of capacity.

It comes as the European Union's Copernicus Climate Change Service found the continent is the world's fastest-warming, with temperatures increasing twice as fast as the global average since the 1980s.

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Half of the bloc and the United Kingdom were experiencing drought by late July, according to the EU's European Drought Observatory, with 9% of the territory at the most severe alert level.

Scientists warn that climate change is exacerbating the frequency and intensity of heat and dryness.

Serbian hydrology expert Dejan Vladikovic told the Associated Press that "what awaits us in the future...is that such situations will be more frequent".

"We are entering periods when this will, unfortunately, become a new normalcy", he added.

(c) Sky News 2026: Drought reveals 100-year-old boat in Serbia and ancient Roman bridge in Italy