PHNOM PENH: Former Cambodian Prime Minister Prince Norodom Ranariddh was seriously injured Sunday in a road crash that killed his wife and injured at least seven other people, officials said.
Ranariddh, 74, was in a convoy along with senior figures of his Funcinpec Party heading toward Sihanoukville in southwest Cambodia when a taxi travelling in the opposite direction slammed into his SUV, said a senior party member in the group.
Cambodia will hold a general election next month in which both Ranariddh and his wife were standing as candidates.
Sihanoukville police chief Chuon Narin said Ranariddh -- a son of the late King Norodom Sihanouk -- suffered head injuries. He was sent to Phnom Penh for urgent treatment. Chuon Narin said Ranariddh's wife, Ouk Phalla, died in hospital.
Ranariddh was Cambodia's co-prime minister for four years in an uneasy power-sharing arrangement with current Prime Minister Hun Sen after his party won a United Nations-organized election in 1993.
His party's popularity was largely due to its royalist credentials, although relations with his father were strained.
He was ousted in July 1997 and then fled abroad when long-simmering tensions between him and Hun Sen exploded into two days of bitter fighting in Phnom Penh between his forces and those loyal to Hun Sen. Ranariddh was allowed to return to contest elections the following year but failed to repeat his success at the ballot. He slid into political irrelevancy, as Funcinpec became co-opted by Hun Sen.
Ranariddh is president of Funcinpec. The party holds 41 seats in the National Assembly, but only because seats held by the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) were distributed to other parties after CNRP was dissolved. AP