[Updated at 6:09 p.m. ET] Conflicting reports emerged late Tuesday over whether the 84-year-old former president of Egypt, Hosni Mubarak, had died.

The state-run Middle East News Agency, citing medical sources, said he was declared clinically dead shortly after arriving at a military hospital in Cairo, where he was taken after suffering a stroke and cardiac arrest earlier in the day.

But Gen. Mamdouh Shahin, a member of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, told CNN, "He is not clinically dead as reported, but his health is deteriorating and he is in critical condition."

Fast facts about Hosni Mubarak

Adel Saeed, the official spokesman of the Egyptian prosecutor, had said earlier, "We were informed by prison authority that Mubarak's heart has stopped and they used electric shocks and CPR to resurrect him. He is now on an artificial respirator and doctors from the armed forces and International Medical Center will inspect him."

Nile TV reported that Mubarak had suffered a stroke.

Elizabeth Cohen, CNN's senior medical correspondent, said that "clinically dead" usually refers to someone who is brain-dead. In such a case, an electroencephalogram would indicate no real brain activity, she said.

Mubarak was sentenced to life in prison June 2 for the killing of pro-democracy demonstrators last year. He already was suffering from health problems and attended court on a gurney.

His health has been reported to be in decline since he was ousted as president of Egypt in February 2011. On June 11, a prosecutor's spokesman said Mubrak's health deteriorated after the verdict, and that defibrillators had been used several times to revive him "due to heart complications."

Mubarak's latest health crisis came on a day when both candidates who participated in a presidential runoff claimed victory.

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