A lorry with Slovenian licence plates hit a support pillar of the exit structure on the Austrian side of the tunnel early Monday morning.

The lorry caught fire on the impact, and a fire brigade intervened, but the 41-driver from Kranj was dead when they pulled him out of the vehicle.

The Austrian motorway company Asfinag has already removed the damaged support pillar and replaced it with a makeshift one.

The 8,019-metre single-tube tunnel linking Slovenia and Austria on the A2 motorway is Slovenia's longest tunnel. It is traversed by thousands of lorries each day.

It has been closed due to accidents numerous times since it opened in 1991 and is considered risky despite numerous upgrades over the years. Plans are afoot to construct a second tube, but ground is yet to be broken on the EUR 300m project.