Hosni Mubarak on life support after heart stops

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Egypt's Hosni Mubarak is on life support after his heart stopped as he arrived at a military hospital.

The state news agency MENA said the 84-year-old Mubarak was "clinically dead" when he arrived at the hospital from prison. It said doctors used a defibrillator on him several times.

MENA initially said the efforts were not successful.

But the official said Mubarak was put on life support. He had no further details on his condition. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to talk to the press.

Mubarak was moved out of prison to a military hospital after the 84-year-old ousted leader suffered a stroke and his condition rapidly deteriorated, officials said.

It adds a new element of uncertainty just as a potentially explosive fight opened over who will succeed him, with both candidates claiming to have won last weekend's presidential election.

The developments add further layers to what is threatening to become a new chapter of unrest and political power struggles in Egypt, 16 months after Mubarak was ousted by a popular uprising demanding democracy.

The campaign of Mubarak's former prime minister, Ahmed Shafiq, said Tuesday he has won Egypt's presidential election, countering the Muslim Brotherhood's claim of victory for its candidate, Mohammed Morsi.

The election commission is to announce the official final results on Thursday and no matter who it names as victor, his rival is likely to reject the result as a fraud. If Shafiq is declared winner in particular, it could spark an explosive backlash from the Brotherhood.

The Brotherhood, Egypt's most powerful political group, is already escalating its challenge against the ruling military over the generals' move this week to give themselves overwhelming authority over the next president. Some 50,000 protesters, mostly Islamists, massed in Cairo's Tahrir Square on Tuesday evening chanting slogans in support of Morsi and denouncing the generals' power grab.

Since June 2, Mubarak has been serving a life sentence at Cairo's Torah Prison for failing to stop the killing of protesters during the 18-day uprising against his rule last year. The verdict against him has already been a spark for protests - thousands massed in Tahrir when the court acquitted him and his sons on separate corruption charges and cleared several top security chiefs on the protester killings.