Austria sees likelihood of hard Brexit - foreign minister

Austria's Foreign Minister Karin Kneissl attends a meeting with her counterpart from Belarus Vladimir Makei in Minsk, Belarus January 15, 2019. REUTERS/Vasily Fedosenko

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Austria sees a heightened risk that Britain will fall out of the European Union without an agreement to avoid a hard economic crash, the country's foreign minister said on Friday.

Asked if Britain was heading for a hard Brexit, Austrian Foreign Minister Karin Kneissl said: "That is my estimation."

"In my view, there are lots of signs that indicate a hard Brexit," Kneissl told reporters as she arrived for a second day of talks with her EU counterparts in Bucharest.

(Reporting by Robin Emmott; Editing by Alison Williams)