(8 Feb 2012)
1. Wide of icebreaker Rasinari
2. Mid of icebreaker
3. Close-up of front of ship scratched by ice
4. Wide of ship's captain breaking ice near shore
5. Various of captain seen through frozen window of commanding room on deck
6. Various of icebreaker creating cracks in frozen river as it moves
7. Various of captain on deck
8. SOUNDBITE (Romanian) Vasile Petria, commander of the Rasinari icebreaker:
''You see, my friend, it's not every year that a captain of a ship encounters these kinds of bad situations. And when you are a part of these kinds of events, it gives you a sense of usefulness. I must be honest, it gives you satisfaction when you know you're saving men and ships that are not able to move because of the ice. It gives you a certain pleasure when you see that one of you is happy to get out of the difficult situation he's been through."
9. Zoom out from clear water to icebreaker as it moves through ice
10. Zoom out from docked ships to icebreaker moving through water
11. Wide of dog running on frozen river
12. Various of icebreaker moving on river, ice cracks
13. Pan from captain on deck to icy water
STORYLINE:
At least four Balkan nations have suspended shipping on the Danube River because of severe frost and the vast amount of ice blocking the heavily travelled waterway.
Bulgaria, Croatia, Romania and Serbia made the decision because up to 90 percent of the river's surface is covered with floating ice, authorities said on Wednesday.
The conditions are making it extremely difficult to traverse Europe's main commercial waterway, which winds 2,860-kilometre (1,777-mile) from Germany and serves as the natural border between Bulgaria and Romania.
Vasile Petria, the commander of the Rasinari icebreaker, struggled for several hours to take his ship out of the iced banks of the Romanian port of Giurgiu.
His mission was to clear the way for a couple of commercial ships blocked on one of the Danube's canals.
"It's not every year that a captain of a ship encounters these kinds of bad situations," Petria said.
"When you are a part of these kinds of events, it gives you a sense of usefulness. I must be honest, it gives you satisfaction when you know you're saving men and ships that are not able to move because of the ice," he added.
Petria said the last time he participated in such a mission was in 1986 when the Romanian Danube was just as badly iced.
Europe has been battling a deep freeze that started in late January and has killed hundreds, snow that has trapped thousands in Balkan mountain villages and prompted worries of flooding as heavy snow melts.
Serbian emergency officials have said the country's army will use explosives to break up ice on the Danube and Ibar rivers to try to prevent flooding.
The Sava and the Danube are partially frozen, with large chunks of ice floating down the two rivers.
In some parts, ice on the Danube is 15 centimetres (nearly six inches) thick.
So far, though, it hasn't jeopardised the work of Serbia's biggest Djerdap hydropower plant, near the Romanian border, officials said.
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