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Austrian far-right leader Joerg Haider killed in car crash

Mr Haider, 58, who earned worldwide notoriety for making statements sympathetic to Hitler's Nazi regime, suffered fatal head and chest injuries after the car he was driving plunged down an embankment near his home town of Klagenfurt.

Detectives are still investigating the cause of the crash, but said he was driving alone at the time in a government-owned vehicle.

The death of Mr Haider, who was governor of Carinthia province in southern Austria, comes less than a fortnight after a major resurgence in the far right's political support in the country, riding on a wave of anti-immigrant and anti-European Union sentiment.

At parliamentary elections last month, Mr Haider's Alliance for the Future of Austria polled 11 per cent of the vote, while the similarly-aligned Freedom Party, which Mr Haider founded but then split from, polled 18 per cent. The results meant nearly in three Austrians had voiced support for far-right movements, dismaying the country's liberal politicians.

Read entire article at Telegraph (UK)