THE young Austrian woman imprisoned for eight-and-a-half years in an underground cell told journalists that she “thought only of escape” during her entire ordeal, and once tried to jump out of her captor’s car.

Repeatedly shutting her eyes against the glare of TV cameras, the Austrian teenager imprisoned for more than eight years described in a nationally-broadcast interview today the horror of being locked into her dark underground cell for the first time.

Austrian former Formula One champion Niki Lauda has received a kidney from his girlfriend in a transplant operation, it was reported today.

President Thomas Klestil of Austria has died a day after being airlifted to hospital suffering heart failure, a spokeswoman for Vienna’s General Hospital said.