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Alex Zanardi seriously injured in handbike crash, undergoing head surgery

ROME -- Paralympic champion Alex Zanardi was seriously injured in a handbike crash Friday -- nearly 20 years after losing both of his legs in a horrific auto racing accident.

Zanardi was transported by helicopter to Santa Maria alle Scotte hospital in Siena following an incident near the Tuscan town of Pienza during a national race for Paralympic athletes, police told The Associated Press.

A medical bulletin from the hospital said Zanardi's condition is "very serious" due to "severe cranial trauma" and that after being placed in a shock room he was undergoing "a delicate neurosurgery operation.