Dead humpback whale Timmy brought ashore on Danish island for postmortem

The body of a dead humpback whale known as “Timmy” has been brought ashore on the Danish island of Anholt, where experts hope a postmortem examination will shed light on how it died.

A live streaming by the News5 broadcaster showed a vehicle slowly dragging the bloated carcass out of the shallow water by a rope onto the beach on Saturday morning, leaving behind a deep furrow in the sand.

The Danish environmental protection agency urged people not to approach the whale as there is a risk of infection.

The carcass is due to be examined on the beach in the coming week. “Because the animal has been lying in the sun for so long, it will smell terribly,” said whale researcher Peter Teglberg Madsen, who has been assisting with whale autopsies in Denmark for 25 years. “It will be quite overwhelming if you’re not used to it.”

The dead whale has been drifting in the water off the holiday island of Anholt for more than two weeks. Authorities previously abandoned an attempt to tow the whale into deeper water so they could bring it into a harbour on the mainland. Danish officials have warned the public that the carcass – which is swollen with decomposition gases – is at risk of exploding.