Two hikers died and eight others were injured Wednesday after a landslide struck a scenic gorge in southern Austria, police said. Two women, a 50-year-old Hungarian and a 21-year-old Austrian, were killed when rocks slammed into a wooden walkway that leads through the Baerenschutz gorge at around noon local time (10:00 GMT). The injured hikers were taken to safety by mountain rescue teams, with one said to have sustained serious injuries. Several helicopters were used in the rescue operation, which was hampered by a lack of phone reception in the remote gorge. The Mixnitzbach river that runs through it was also searched in case other victims had plunged into it. The Baerenschutz gorge in the southern state of Styria, which normally attracts 40,000 visitors a year, has now been closed off, and police have opened an investigation. jsk/wai