One man, aged 53, was crushed to death when a snow plough fell down some steps in a "residential complex" in the northern city of Linz, police said.

Three skiers were killed in avalanches in the Tyrol region, including a German whose 16-year-old son was seriously injured in the landslide at Nauders. Two of the people died in an avalanche near the St Anton ski resort, officials said.

Tyrol authorities appealed for skiers to stay away from off-piste activities. The latest deaths took to 18 the number of dead in avalanches in Austria this winter season.

Up to 40 centimetres (16 inches) of snow fell on the Alpine nation since Thursday, prompting alerts for southeast Austria, notably in the region around the city of Graz.

Vienna airport said it was forced to temporarily halt all flights in the morning, and afternoon services were "disrupted".

One of the main orbital highways around Vienna was closed for several hours, and other sections of highway were blocked by snowdrifts, stranded lorries or poor visibility, said the national automobile association, OAMTC.

Electric companies reported power outages in several regions in the south and east, including Styria, where 30,000 homes lost electricity.

In neighbouring Slovenia, 40,000 households were affected, according to local media, which reported major disruptions in the country's northeast.