Harare - Zimbabwe's prime minister, Morgan Tsvangirai (56) was injured and his wife, Susan, was killed in a car crash late Friday, party officials confirmed, adding that suspicious circumstances could indicate foul play.

The accident occurred on a notoriously dangerous stretch of road about 100 km south of the capital Harare. Officials from Tsvangirai's party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), who asked not to be named said his car had been struck by the trailer of a heavy truck that swung out into the middle of the road when the two vehicles passed each other.

Mrs Tsvangirai was on the side of the car that got hit, and suffered "massive" injuries. Hospital sources Mr Tsvangirai did not appear to have any broken bones.

"Morgan is badly bruised and cut, but I'm afraid Susan has died," said Eddie Cross, a member of MDC executive.

The couple were travelling in an MDC Landcruiser with two accompanying security vehicles, on their way to Buhera in the south-east of the country for a rally of his Movement for Democratic Change.

"Morgan will be devastated, they were a real team," said Cross. The couple had been married since 1978 and had six children. An attractive, well-dressed woman, she played no significant political role, apart from being at his side at public occasions.

Observers said the accident was expected to ignite deep-seated suspicion among Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change which enjoys overwhelming support around the country, that the accident was sabotage.

President Robert Mugabe's former regime has a long history of assassination plots, mass murder and torture of its opponents since it came to power in 1980.

However, within an hour of Tsvangirai being brought to the private Avenues Clinic, Mugabe and his wife, Grace, arrived to express their condolences, followed by several other senior officials of Mugabe's ZANU(PF) party.

Cross said that an early investigation team despatched to the spot immediately after the accident occurred, reported that the front left tyre had had a blowout. "They were taking videos and pictures and then the police came and arrested them, and took their videos and pictures," he said. "We don't like that."

"That's the big question," he said when asked if there were suspicions of foul play. "We will wait and see. We will demand complete transparency and a thorough investigation."

Tsvangirai was sworn in as prime minister 24 days ago following a power-sharing agreement between ZANU(PF) and the MDC after inconclusive elections last year, although experts say that Tsvangirai and the MDC had the upper hand in presidential and parliamentary elections.

MDC officials said Tsvangirai had been issued a new S-class Mercedes Benz for official use as prime minister soon after he was sworn in, but that he appeared to have reverted to the MDC's Landcruiser and a smaller security escort for party business.

Cross confirmed that this week Lovemore Moyo, the MDC's speaker of parliament, had sent his driver from Harare to the western city of Bulawayo with a new government-issued Mercedes limousine, and that it had suffered two burst front tyres. "That was a brand new vehicle, with brand new tyres," he said. "There is something amiss."

Before the power sharing agreement, Mugabe's regime continually harassed the former national trade union leader, had him charged with treason in a trumped up coup plot, repeatedly arrested and in 2007 he was savagely beaten by police and seriously injured, for walking into a police station to ask after MDC officials that had been arrested.

Zimbabwe is currently in the gravest crisis in the country's history, with hyperinflation, mass poverty, food shortages and international isolation of Mugabe.

The collapse in the public health care network has also allowed a cholera epidemic to claim 4,000 lives, with another 88,000 taken ill. (dpa)