MORGAN FREEMAN will undergo surgery after being involved in a serious car accident

The veteran actor broke his shoulder and arm when he flipped his car over in Mississippi on Sunday night.

The actor and his passenger Demaris Meyer had to be cut from the wreckage and airlifted to the Regional Medical Center in Memphis, Tennessee after Morgan lost control of the vehicle on Highway 32, near his home in Charleston.

Reports say the actor's 1997 Nissan Maxima appeared to have been airborne before it left the highway and landed in a ditch.

But the actor is believed to have been in good spirits despite being surrounded by emergency crews at the scene.

Charleston's Sun Sentinel editor Clay McFerrin, says: "They had to use the jaws of life to extract him from the vehicle.

"He was lucid, conscious. He was talking, joking with some of the rescue workers at one point."

After initial concerns about his wellbeing, the 71-year-old's publicist has confirmed Freeman is suffering broken bones, but is expected to make a "good" recovery.

He was visited in hospital on Monday by Bill Luckett, friend and co-owner of Freeman's Mississippi restaurant Madidi, who said the star was sitting up and talking.

Meyer, whose relationship to Freeman is unknown, is suffering from minor injuries but is "in good condition".