Malawi President Bingu wa Mutharika 'dead'

President Bingu wa Mutharika of Malawi has died, doctors and cabinet ministers have told the BBC, but this has not been officially confirmed.

One of the doctors who treated Mr Mutharika said the president was "clinically dead" on Thursday after suffering a cardiac arrest.

State media are still reporting that he has been flown to South Africa for medical treatment.

If confirmed, his death would spark a constitutional crisis, analysts say.

According to the constitution, the vice-president takes over if the head of state is incapacitated or dies in office.

But Vice-President Joyce Banda and Mr Mutharika fell out after a row over the succession in 2010, and she was expelled from the ruling party.

The BBC's Raphael Tenthani in the main city, Blantyre, says that ministers have been meeting all night to discuss the situation.

The doctors and ministers say that Mr Mutharika's body was taken to South Africa while a decision is taken about what to do next.

Source: BBC