Morgan Freeman seriously injured in Mississippi car accident

The 71-year-old former soap star (ANOTHER WORLD, RYAN'S HOPE), Oscar-winner and star of new Batman film The Dark Knight is being treated in a Memphis hospital following the crash shortly before midnight last night.

A spokeswoman for the Regional Medical Centre said Freeman is in a "serious condition".

According to website tmz.com, Freeman was driving on Highway 32 in Tallahatchie County when he lost control of the vehicle, which flipped over several times. He and an unidentified female passenger had to be cut from the wreckage.

Freeman was conscious when the emergency services arrived and even joked to onlookers, according to a witness at the scene.

When one bystander attempted to take a photograph with his mobile phone, the actor said: “No freebies, no freebies.”

Clay McFerrin, editor of the Sun Sentinel newspaper in nearby Charleston, was on the scene soon after the accident took place.

“They had to use the jaws of life [hydraulic cutters] to extract him from the vehicle. He was lucid, conscious. He was talking, joking with some of the rescue workers at one point,” Mr McFerrin said, adding that the car appeared to have left the highway and landed in a ditch.

It is believed that no other vehicle was involved in the crash. A Highway Patrol sopkesman confirmed that Freeman was involved in the accident but said officers were still gathering information.

Freeman lives in Charleston with his second wife, Myrna, and owns a restaurant in nearby Clarksdale.

Freeman is one of Hollywood's best-loved actors. After starring on ANOTHER WORLD as Roy Bingham his career took off in films including The Shawshank Redemption, Amistad and Million Dollar Baby, the latter earning him an Oscar in 2005.

He is currently on the big screen as Lucius Fox, Batman's trusty aide in The Dark Knight.

The hospital, commonly known as The Med, is an acute-care teaching facility which serves patients within 150 miles of Memphis.

Ashley Norris, manager of the Ground Zero Blues Club in Clarksdale, Mississippi, which is owned by Freeman, confirmed the actor was in an accident but said she had no other details.