The elder brother of South African Olympic and Paralympic track star Oscar Pistorius has been badly injured in a car crash, a family spokeswoman said yesterday.

The incident happened on Friday night north of the capital Pretoria when Carl Pistorius, 29, was returning home from a business trip. The family statement said he was hit by a vehicle which had swerved from the other side of the road.

Carl Pistorius was acquitted last year on charges of culpable homicide over the death of a woman in a traffic incident in 2008.