Bulgarian prince seriously injured in car crash

MADRID (Reuters) - Prince Kardam of Bulgaria, the eldest son of the former king of Bulgaria, was seriously injured when his car crashed into a tree on a Madrid highway on Friday, a traffic police spokesman said.

Emergency services transferred the 46-year-old prince, who was traveling with his wife, to the Doce de Octubre hospital in Madrid by helicopter with serious head and hand injuries, the spokesman said.

The prince's wife, Miriam Ungria, 45, is in the La Paz hospital in north Madrid with lesser injuries, he said.

Simeon Saxe-Coburg was king of the Balkan state for three years until 1946 when the communist regime abolished the monarchy and sent the royals into exile. He returned to Bulgaria in 2001 and was prime minister until 2005.

(Reporting by Sonya Dowsett, editing by Mary Gabriel)