FACTBOX-Key facts about Zimbabwe's Tsvangirai

(Reuters) - Zimbabwe opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai was arrested with a number of other opposition officials on Wednesday after police swooped on the party's Harare headquarters, officials said.

Police had already arrested Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Tsvangirai earlier in March after preventing him from attending a planned prayer rally to address the deepening political and economic crisis.

He was pictured after being released at that time looking bruised following what he said was a brutal police attack while in custody.

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 labour movement as a mine foreman.

* He helped found the labour-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.