Austrian President Thomas Klestil is in critical condition after being revived following a heart failure.
The Austrian rescue agency OeAMTC said Mr Klestil was flown by emergency helicopter from his Vienna residence to a hospital in the capital this morning.
"The heart failure and resuscitation took place in his villa. His bodyguard resuscitated him and called for emergency doctors," a spokesman for OeAMTC said.
Austrian President Mr Thomas Klestil
Vienna General Hospital said Mr Klestil was in critical condition, Austrian news agency APA reported. The failure comes just days before he is due to step down from the largely ceremonial office
Klestil (71) is due to end his second six-year term on Thursday and hand over the office in Vienna's Hofburg palace to Social Democrat Mr Heinz Fischer, elected in April.
He is probably best known for the stony face he showed when he swore in the first government to include the far-right Freedom Party of Joerg Haider in February 2000.
The president theoretically has wide-ranging powers under the constitution to pick the chancellor, who runs the day-to-day affairs of government, and to dismiss a government he does not like. But no Austrian president has ever fired a government and traditionally the chancellor is in effect named by the largest party after parliament elections.