FACTBOX: Key facts about Zimbabwe's Tsvangirai

(Reuters) - Zimbabwe opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai was in intensive care with a broken skull on Wednesday following what he says was a brutal police attack while in custody, his spokesman said.

Police arrested Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Tsvangirai and other opposition officials on Sunday after preventing them from attending a planned prayer rally to address the deepening political and economic crisis.

Here are some key facts about Tsvangirai:

* Tsvangirai is a self-taught son of a bricklayer. Born in March 1952 in Gutu in central Zimbabwe, he worked in a mine to support his family and cut his political teeth in the labor movement as a mine foreman.

* He helped found the labor-backed MDC in 1999. Despite killings and police intimidation, the MDC stunned the ruling party in June 2000 by winning 57 of the 120 seats at stake in a parliamentary election as Tsvangirai captivated the public with powerful speeches.

* Tsvangirai was acquitted in October 2004 of plotting to assassinate President Robert Mugabe and seize power before 2002 presidential elections. The government in August withdrew a remaining treason charge.

* Led by Tsvangirai, the MDC lost 10 seats in a 2005 parliamentary election which handed Mugabe's party a crushing majority. The MDC lodged court challenges to the result, which it said was rigged.

* Tsvangirai was re-elected leader of the MDC in March 2006 after calling for mass action to step up pressure on Mugabe's government. The party split in 2005 in a bitter feud over how to tackle Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF, with a splinter group accusing Tsvangirai of behaving in dictatorial fashion and breaking away to form their own MDC faction party.

* Last November, Tsvangirai led his top lieutenants in a march to parliament to protest against Mugabe's rule in the face of a deepening economic crisis. Last Friday new figures revealed that inflation hit a new record of 1,729.9 percent in February from 1,593.6 percent the previous month.