One dead and 21 severely injured after fire rips through Austrian bar during new year celebration

One person has died and 21 people were severely injured when a blaze ripped through a bar in the southeastern Austrian city of Graz in the early hours of the New Year.

Austrian police said that the fire broke out around 4am at a bar in the city centre where people were attending a New Year’s party.

One person, who has not yet been identified, suffered fatal injuries, state police said in a statement.

At least a further three are still in critical condition at a hospital’s intensive care unit.

The cause of the fire, which broke out at the entrance of the bar, was not immediately known but investigators were looking into a technical defect.

Graz is the second largest city in Austria after Vienna with around 330,000 inhabitants.