Skip to main content

Italy declares state of emergency after deadly gas explosion in Austria


 Flames rise into the sky after an explosion at Austria’s main gas pipeline hub in Baumgarten.

Reuters
Reuters in Vienna

Shares

1,824
A deadly explosion and fire that ripped through Austria’s main gas pipeline hub has caused Italy to declare a state of emergency due to a lack of supplies.
One person was killed and 18 injured in the blast on Tuesday in Baumgarten, eastern Austria.
A police spokesman said: “There was an explosion around 8:45am (0745 GMT) and a fire. A wide area has been sealed off and there are expected to be several injured.”
In Britain, Europe’s biggest gas market, gas for immediate delivery rose 35% to 92p per therm, its highest level for four years.
Gas Connect Austria, which operates the Baumgarten site, said the blaze had been brought under control. Police said the cause was technical in origin.
Footage on social and other media showed a column of flames rising from the site.
The hub is important for European gas transit, with natural gas transported to Baumgarten through Slovakia and Germany along several pipelines. Gas flows are then delivered throughout Europe via Austria’s transmission network.
Firefighters try to extinguish the blaze

Gas Connect Austria said deliveries to Austria’s southern and south-eastern borders would be affected until further notice.
Italy’s industry minister said the country must grapple with a “serious” energy supply problem.
Slovakia’s main gas transit route to Austria was suspended after the fire, said the Slovak pipeline operator, Eustream.
Russia’s Gazprom Export said it was trying to redirect gas flows and secure uninterrupted supplies.
Gas prices elsewhere in Europe soared on concerns about supply.
The Italian wholesale day-ahead price surged 97% to a record high of €47 per megawatt-hour.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Meryl Streep wants to trademark her own name

Meryl Streep has won three Oscars, three Emmys and six Golden Globes during her 40-year long career on stage, screen and television. (Photo by Joel C Ryan/Invision/AP, File) Meryl Streep, the most celebrated actress of her generation, has filed an application to trademark her name. The application was filed with US Patent and Trademark Office on January 22, records show. It requests that the name Meryl Streep be trademarked for “entertainment services,” movie appearances, speaking engagements and autographs. Streep, 68, last week extended her record to 21 Academy Award nominations, this time for her role in “The Post.” She has won three Oscars, three Emmys and six Golden Globes during her 40-year long career on stage, screen and television. It is not clear why Streep would file a trademark application at this stage in her career and her attorney and publicist did not return a request for comment on Monday. Many celebrities trademark their names or catch phrases to pro...
Post a Comment
Read more

Beijing’s struggle against pollution will be tough, take time: Mayor

Beijing’s battle against air pollution will take time and be very tough to win despite recent improvements, the acting mayor of China’s capital said on Wednesday. The city has been fighting to clean its notoriously smoggy air through steps such as pushing households and factories to switch away from coal to cleaner fuels like natural gas. “Further improvement in air quality (will be) extremely difficult,” acting mayor of Beijing, Chen Jining, said in a statement released during the city’s congress meeting. The central government’s intense focus on air quality means many local officials’ careers are linked to the success of efforts to tackle smog, making it unusual to speak candidly about the challenges of meeting tough targets. Beijing has chalked up a short-term success by cutting the annual average level of breathable particulate matter (PM 2.5) to 58 micrograms per cubic metre in 2017, beating a target set by the State Council in 2012. However, the city is still some way f...
Post a Comment
Read more

Under fire, Steve Bannon backs off explosive comments about Donald Trump’s son

Bannon, ousted from the White House in August, was quoted in “Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House,” by journalist Michael Wolff, as saying a June 2016 meeting with a group of Russians attended by Donald Trump Jr. and his father’s top campaign officials was “treasonous” and “unpatriotic.” (Photo: Reuters) President Donald Trump’s former strategist Steve Bannon on Sunday backed away from derogatory comments ascribed to him about Trump’s son in a new book that sparked White House outrage and could threaten Bannon’s influence as a would-be conservative power broker. Bannon, ousted from the White House in August, was quoted in “Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House,” by journalist Michael Wolff, as saying a June 2016 meeting with a group of Russians attended by Donald Trump Jr. and his father’s top campaign officials was “treasonous” and “unpatriotic.” The president responded by saying Bannon had lost his mind, and the White House suggested the hard-right news site...
Post a Comment
Read more