Vienna - Austrian police have started to investigate whether the man who abducted and imprisoned Natascha Kampusch was linked to child pornographers, the Oesterreich newspaper reported Friday.

"There are indications that Kampusch's abductor Wolfgang Priklopil had contact and was friends with people in the child pornography scene," said Franz Lang, head of Austria's criminal investigation agency.

He said, however, that there was no proof yet that these people had had direct contact with Kampusch, 20, who was abducted at the age of 10 and forced to live in a cellar under Priklopil's house near Vienna for eight years.

Priklopil evaded justice by committing suicide after Kampusch escaped in 2006, but police have recently started a new probe into the case, as earlier investigations were found to have been incomplete.

In an interview with ORF TV late on Thursday, Lang said he did not rule out the possibility that Priklopil had not acted alone. (dpa)