One person has died after an explosion at a natural gas facility near Austria’s border with Slovakia, authorities said.
The Austria Press Agency reported that Red Cross official Sonja Keller said a further 18 people were injured.
There was no immediate word on what caused the blast Tuesday at the plant in Baumgarten an der March, east of Vienna, where pipelines connect and gas is compressed.
The explosion has caused Italy to declare a state of emergency due to lack of gas supplies.
Speaking to Reuters a police spokesman said: “There was an explosion around 8:45 a.m. (0745 GMT) and a fire. A wide area has been sealed off and there are expected to be several injured.”
A spokesman for the fire brigade on the scene also told Reuters that one person had been killed and 18 injured, one seriously. A second police spokesman confirmed that 18 people had been injured.
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