Austria grants 11 million pound restitution for alpine disaster

Relatives of 155 people killed when an Austrian Alps funicular train caught fire in a tunnel in 2000 will share a 13.9-million-euro (11 million pound) settlement, the compensation commission said on Tuesday.

The restitution benefiting 451 claimants in Austria and abroad concluded years of legal squabbling following what was the Alpine republic's worst disaster in peacetime.

Klaus Liebscher, governor of Austria's central bank and chairman of the commission, said the deal was agreed "without reservations" by all claimants on June 12 and the money would be paid out promptly.

Victims were mainly Austrians and Germans but also from the United States, the Netherlands, Britain, Slovenia and Japan.

The November 11, 2000 fire, traced to a malfunctioning heater, engulfed a train filled with skiers and snowboarders as it was passing through a tunnel en route to the Kitzsteinhorn glacier near the ski resort of Kaprun. Twelve people survived.

In a statement, Liebscher, said the accord stipulates that relatives of the victims drop any separate, pending litigation seeking compensation.

He told reporters 23 of 28 claimants from Japan had sent a fax earlier this week declaring they would withdraw from the agreement. But he said the accord was legally binding and the Japanese relatives would have no other recourse.

Representatives of victims had sought higher reparations in class-action lawsuits lodged in Austria and the United States.

Sixteen people, including employees of the cable car operator and the vehicle's maker, were charged with criminal negligence over the catastrophe but all were acquitted in 2004. Eight were retried on appeal, and again acquitted.