"That thing that you can see there right across this boat, those ships were never been visible," one resident said.

The vessels were among nearly 200 military and support ships scuttled by retreating German forces in 1944 to prevent them from falling into the hands of the advancing Red Army and to block the Danube shipping channel.

Some of the wrecks are believed to contain unexploded ammunition, making them dangerous to remove and a continuing hazard to river traffic. Their presence has narrowed the navigable channel near Prahovo from about 180 metres to 100 metres during periods of low water .

Serbia and the European Union are carrying out a project to remove 21 of the most obstructive wrecks from a five-kilometre section of the river. Two vessels were recovered in 2024, with work expected to continue until 2028.

Record low water levels across parts of Serbia and neighbouring countries have disrupted cargo traffic, tourism and energy production while exposing shipwrecks and other remains that had been hidden for decades.

The Danube flows for around 2,850 kilometres from Germany's Black Forest to the Black Sea, passing through or bordering ten countries.

Speaking at the MVM Paks Nuclear Power Plant in Paks on Friday, Magyar argued that earlier investment in climate adaptation could have prevented the current situation.

"If the Fidesz government, instead of a pro-Russian energy policy that dismisses climate change and bans wind turbines, had focused on Hungary's real sovereignty [...] Paks 1 could still be operating even now under such record-low Danube water levels," he said.

Magyar said the previous administration failed to prepare the plant for increasingly frequent droughts. He argued that installing new cooling pumps earlier and expanding wind power generation would have strengthened Hungary's electricity supply.

"While the previous government preached about sovereignty, [...] the expansion interests of the Russian nuclear industry and the interests of the domestic business circles attached to them were more important to the previous government than those of Hungarian consumers," he asserted.

The prime minister also questioned why work to prepare Paks 1 for low water levels had been awarded to a joint venture involving Russia's Rosatom.

"We know this well in connection with Paks 2, but despite the fact that preparation for low water levels and the development of pumps here at Paks 1 do not require Russian expertise, for some reason they still entrusted the development to a joint MVM Rosatom company," he said.

Paks was operating at less than half of its two-gigawatt capacity after falling Danube water levels limited the cooling water available to the reactors.

The Danube dropped to a record-low 23 centimetres in Budapest on Wednesday, breaking the previous record of 33 centimetres set in 2018.

Magyar had earlier warned that the plant could be forced to shut down completely for weeks, taking offline a facility that normally produces nearly half of Hungary's electricity.

The prolonged drought has also disrupted cargo shipping on parts of the Danube and reduced nuclear power generation in neighbouring Romania.