Austria probes possible phone tie to Mumbai attack

VIENNA (Reuters) - Austria is looking into whether militants who besieged Mumbai last week used an Austrian telephone number to communicate during the attacks, the Interior Ministry said Friday.

The ministry said it was tipped off about the possible link by a foreign intelligence agency Thursday.

"We are now working on two levels. We have asked for more information from Interpol and the Indian authorities and we will try and find out where the number first originated from," ministry spokesman Rudolf Gollia said.

He said Austrian authorities would investigate the central telephone register, held by the state telecoms regulator.

So far, authorities believe the number was sold by the state telecoms operator to a provider in another European country, a common practice. The probe concerns a fixed line number which is not linked to a particular place, Gollia said.

The number is Austrian in that it has the country's international dialing code, but it is the foreign provider who maintained the number and was responsible for the billing, he said.

Gollia could not give further technical details on how the number was used.

The violence in India's financial capital killed at least 171 people. India has said nine militants were killed and one captured alive. U.S. analysts say as many as 23 gunmen could have been involved in the attacks.

(Reporting by Sylvia Westall, editing by Mark Trevelyan)