70 Vehicles Slam Together in Austria

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VIENNA — About 70 vehicles slammed into each other Tuesday in heavy snowfall on an autobahn in northwestern Austria, killing one person and injuring at least 37 others, police said.

Police in the province of Upper Austria said six of the injured people were seriously hurt.

Police said the person who died was a 37-year-old Spanish woman who lived in Switzerland. Authorities said she was killed when her car slid out of control and was run over by a truck.

Some victims were trapped in their vehicles and rescue efforts were hampered by the snow, police said. Rescue helicopters airlifted the injured to area hospitals.

Police said the accident happened on the westbound A1 autobahn between the towns of Seewalchen and St. Georgen, northeast of Salzburg. That section of the autobahn was closed in both directions for most of the day, and the westbound section remained shut down Tuesday evening.

The speed limit is 130 kilometers (80 miles) per hour.

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