[Detomah]

Oscar-winning actor Morgan Freeman is in hospital after being injured in a car accident in Mississippi.

The 71-year-old Dark Knight star is in a serious condition, according to staff at Memphis's Regional Medical Center.

The accident happened shortly before midnight on Sunday in Tallahatchie County in the Mississippi Delta.

A Mississippi Highway Patrol spokesman told the BBC that Freeman's car left the road and "began to flip several times" before landing in a ditch.

Both the actor and a female passenger had been wearing seatbelts and were airlifted to hospital, said Sergeant Ben Williams.

Freeman was conscious and talking at the scene of the accident, he added, but the extent of his injuries was unclear.

There were "no other vehicles or pedestrians involved", he said.

An investigation into the accident is currently underway.

FREEMAN FACTS

• Born 1 June 1937, in Memphis, Tennessee
• He spent several years in the US Air Force as a mechanic
• Freeman started acting in the 1960s, appearing a couple of off-Broadway shows
• His first credited film appearance was in 1971's Who Says I Can't Ride a Rainbow!
• Freeman starred in some of the biggest films of the 1990s, including The Shawshank Redemption, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, Se7en, and Deep Impact
• He won an Oscar in 2005 for the film Million Dollar Baby
• Freeman plays Lucius Fox in this summer's blockbuster, The Dark Knight.

Clay McFerrin, editor of local newspaper the Sun-Sentinel, told the Associated Press news agency he had been at the scene on Mississippi Highway 32, not far from where Freeman owns a home with his wife.

"They had to use the jaws of life to extract him from the vehicle," McFerrin said. "He was lucid, conscious. He was talking, joking with some of the rescue workers at one point."

When one person tried to take a photo with a mobile phone, Freeman joked, "no freebies, no freebies," McFerrin said.

Mechanic

Freeman won a best supporting actor Oscar for boxing drama Million Dollar Baby in 2005, and has twice been nominated in the leading actor category - for The Shawshank Redemption in 1995 and Driving Miss Daisy in 1990.

Last year it was announced the actor would play former South African president Nelson Mandela in forthcoming film The Human Factor.

His first credited film appearance was in the 1971 movie Who Says I Can't Ride a Rainbow!

Prior to that, he had worked as a mechanic in the US Air Force.

His film appearances include Se7en, Unforgiven and the rebooted Batman franchise.

BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Freeman injured in car accident

I really hope he's ok, I've been really looking forward to seeing his portrayal of Nelson Mandela. It'd also be a pretty sad loss for the world of cinema if we lost him, he's still got a good few films left in him yet.