Austrian Fascist Leader Dies in Car Crash

World | Sat, Oct 11, 2008 at 8:46:44 am PDT

Neo-fascist Austrian politician Joerg Haider has been killed in a car crash.

Austrian far-right politician Joerg Haider has been killed in a road accident, police reports say.

Haider died near Klagenfurt in Carinthia, his political stronghold. He was driving alone when his car came off the road and he suffered severe head and chest injuries, police told the Austrian APA news agency.

The 58-year-old was a former leader of the Austrian Freedom Party, and was known for his anti-immigration and anti-EU policies.

Police investigators in Klagenfurt told the BBC that investigations into the crash were under way.
He had reportedly been due to attend his mother’s 90th birthday celebrations later in the day.

“For us this is the end of the world,” the deputy leader of Haider’s Alliance for Austria’s Future, Stefan Petzner, told Austrian news agency, APA.