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Kampusch climbdown over 'Austrian aggressiveness'

By Thomas Hochwarter

Natascha Kampusch has blamed "excitement" in front of interested journalists for a string of controversial comments about Austria and Vienna at a press conference in Germany this week.

The 21-year-old � who was held for eight years in a cellar dungeon by pervert Wolfgang Priklopil who kidnapped her off the street when she was just ten - had told journalists in Hamburg she felt "a lot of resentment and aggressiveness against myself in Austria".

Sspeaking on Monday to promote an upcoming TV documentary about her cellar ordeal she said: "Criticising others and putting them down is part of the Viennese mentality."

She also told German journalists they were more sensitive when they asked questions than their Austrian colleagues.

But Kampusch said yesterday (Thurs): "I thought I should put the record straight after opening the newspapers as I arrived from Hamburg yesterday.

"I made bad choices of ways of expressing things because I was excited speaking in front of around 50 interested journalists," Kampusch � who gave a TV interview just two weeks after her eight-year ordeal � explained.

She added she had not intended to criticise Austrian media by thanking German reporters for their careful way of asking questions.

Kampusch hit the headlines this week when she revealed that her hygiene-obsessed jailer would beat her if she left marks on objects when he let her out of the special dungeon he held her in.

She also explained how she was forced to tie up her hair and cover it with a plastic bag in her 2.7-metre long and 1.8-metre wide cellar prison before Wolfgang Priklopil � who committed suicide on the day Kampusch ran away from him in August 2006 � decided to shave her head.

Bosses at national broadcaster ORF meanwhile said they have not yet come to an agreement over screening the "Natascha Kampusch - 3.096 Tage Gefangenschaft" (Natascha Kampusch � 3,096 Days in Captivity), the 45-minute documentary on Kampusch�s eight years in captivity at Priklopil�s home in Strasshof an der Nordbahn, Lower Austria.

German station ARD will air the production on 25 January. ORF is expected to reach an agreement with the station.

Austrian Times

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Captivity journalists marks dungeon headlines documentary jailer Germany aggressiveness thanking held Hamburg Austrian reporters Kampusch objects Natascha agreement Priklopil cellar

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