Austria factory explosion kills four

Four people have been killed in an explosion at a steel foundry in the southern Austrian province of Styria, the Austrian police said yesterday.

"We confirm that four people are dead and several others have serious and light injuries," Gerhard Kogler, a police official in the town of Kapfenberg, told Reuters.

The factory is the main production plant of the Austrian steelmaking group Boehler-Uddeholm, one of the world's top producers of precision steel for airplanes and other products.

A Boehler spokesman who was travelling with the company's executives in London said they did not have detailed information yet and were trying to arrange a quick flight back to Austria.

"Our information is that three employees lost their lives and four are badly injured. We cannot say at the moment what caused the accident," spokesman Randolf Fochler said.