Bratislava - Slovakia's carmakers halted or limited production Thursday, a side effect of Russia's decision to cut off natural gas supplies flowing to western Europe via Ukraine.

A Kia plant in Slovakia, which churns out 700 cars a day, halted production Thursday morning, spokesman Dusan Dvorak confirmed. A Peugeot plant decided to slash one of its shifts, local reports said.

Slovakia is fully dependent on Russian gas deliveries. The Slovak gas importer and distributor SPP tapped into its underground reserves to supply households, schools and hospitals. However, it asked industrial clients to limit consumption to a minimum.

"This is not an amount sufficient for maintaining production. The industrial clients whose production is dependent on gas should halt production," the company said in a statement.

Slovak officials have said that some thousand firms are impacted by the gas delivery cut-off. (dpa)