London - European stock markets tumbled at the start of trading on Thursday following a heavy sell-off across Asia on heightened tensions over China's weak economy.
Shortly after the open at about 08:15 GMT, the FTSE was down 1.9% at 5 957 points compared with Wednesday's close.
In the eurozone, Frankfurt's DAX 30 slumped 2.9% to 9 917.3 points and the Paris CAC 40 shed 2.4% to 4 373.8.
Chinese markets were suspended on Thursday for the second day this week after they fell more than seven percent, leading an Asia-wide sell-off as Beijing weakened the value of the yuan currency by the most since August.
"Equity markets are continuing their steep losses... with investor sentiment being pressured by various factors," said Lukman Otunuga, research analyst at trading group FXTM.
"These include the resumption of fears over global growth following weak data from China...
while increased geopolitical tensions between Saudi Arabia and Iran and an unexpected nuclear test from North Korea have also encouraged investors to dodge away from riskier assets."