Harvey's mental state had been "unstable", his manager said

The ex-East 17 singer was crushed under his Mercedes in Essex on Tuesday and spent more than seven hours in surgery.

It follows reported suicide attempts but his manager Simon Harrison said: "It was just a freak accident."

He was moved from east London's Whipps Cross Hospital to an unidentified crush injuries unit on Wednesday.

'Thrown from vehicle'

Police said Harvey may have fallen from the convertible while reversing from an access road into the street.

No-one else was in the car and police were called by paramedics at 0153 on Tuesday, they said. The circumstances are being investigated.

Mr Harrison said the singer was on his way to the recording studio when the accident occurred.

"It looks as if Brian was reversing down the road with his door open, looking out to see where he was going, and the door hit a parked car which sent his car out of control," he said.

Surgeons operated on his abdomen and pelvis, he told BBC Radio Five Live.

"I know he suffered from a broken leg, six breaks to the pelvis, his abdominal area was pushed very high into his chest, they had to drain his lungs yesterday and there was also damage to his ribs," he said.

Harvey faced more surgery on his leg on Wednesday, which Mr Harrison said was "broken so badly that it was turned completely in the opposite direction".

He briefly regained consciousness and recognised his name, "which is a good sign in terms of his recovery," Mr Harrison said.

He confirmed Harvey had been depressed and his mental state had been "reasonably unstable in the last few months".

People have speculated it might be a suicide attempt but I don't think you could plan this if you tried

Simon Harrison, Brian Harvey's manager

"There are easier ways to kill yourself. It was just a freak accident and a piece of seriously bad luck."

The depression stretched back to last November, when Harvey's grandmother died, he said - but added his state of mind had been "very good" immediately before the accident.

"Unfortunately it comes at a time when everybody knows he has been suffering from depression," Mr Harrison said.

"But I spoke to him just a couple of days before this happened and he was very upbeat about recording some new music."

'Suicide attempts'

Harvey's grandmother died just before he joined reality TV show I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here!, which he quit after six days.

Press reports have said he took two overdoses of sleeping tablets and alcohol in the past month, although a spokesman denied the stories as "totally untrue" at the time.

Harvey has previously boasted about drug-taking, admitting swallowing 12 ecstasy tablets in one night.

He fronted East 17 to become one of the UK's most successful pop groups of the 1990s, scoring 12 Top 10 hits including Stay Another Day, If You Ever and Each Time.

But a solo career stalled after comeback singles only grazed the Top 20 in 2001.