Car crash kills Austria's Haider

(CNN) - Far-right Austrian politician Joerg Haider has died in a car accident, Austrian police said Saturday.

Haider was driving alone in his official state car in the south of the country early Saturday when the car went off the road, police said. He suffered head and chest injuries and died shortly afterward, police said.

"For us it's like the end of the world," Haider spokesman Stefan Petzner told the Austria Press Agency.

Haider was governor of the southern Austrian state of Carinthia and chief of the BZO party (Alliance for the Future of Austria).