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“Of course we need the support of the world, and please do support us in achieving democratic change in Zimbabwe.”

He said he was assaulted after Mr Mugabe “ruthlessly crushed” a peaceful prayer meeting organised by local churches, describing how he was beaten and verbally abused by officers after driving to a police station where senior members were being held.

“Upon my arrival at Machipisa Police Station, all hell broke loose,” he wrote. “I was pulled out of my car by heavily built men in police gear and they began smashing my head against the wall while pushing me inside the station.

“The orgy of heavy beatings continued once we were all inside the station. They were mostly targeting my head and my face. It was all like a bad dream. I felt like my head had been smashed open or I had been partially decapitated. I passed out three times, I was later told by eyewitnesses.

“I lost a lot of blood and was later injected with two pints. After passing out the last time, I can’t remember many things.”

In the UK,Margaret Beckett, the Foreign Secretary, said that the "thugs" behind the violence needed to be identified and hit with further sanctions, calling for the United Nations to instigate tough action over human rights abuses and for EU sanctions - including an arms embargo, a travel ban and assets freeze - against the regime to be toughened up.

Writing separately in today's Times , she also said that it was crucial any measures taken against Mr Mugabe would not harm Zimbabwean civilians - "the very people we are trying to help."

Lord Triesman, Foreign Office Minister, urged African leaders, including South Africa’s President Thabo Mbeki, to step up pressure on the Mugabe regime. He told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme: “(South Africa) are beginning to use tougher language than they have in the past, but I would dearly, dearly like to see them take a more forward-leaning position, of course I would.”

Defiant as ever, the President refused to bow down to global criticism of his tactics. “It’s the West as usual,” Mr Mugabe said yesterday during a surprise visit to Harare by President Jikaya Kikwete of Tanzania.

“When they criticise the Government trying to prevent violence and punish the perpetrators of that violence, we take the position that they can go hang.”

Western diplomats have linked Mr Jikaya’s arrival with increasing alarm among African leaders that the situation in Harare was out of control.

“The African Union is very uncomfortable,” John Kufuor, the President of Ghana and the Chairman of the AU, said in remarks that were uncharacteristically blunt for an African leader. “The situation in your country [Zimbabwe] is very embarrassing.”

Doctors said that they were dealing with a constant stream of broken limbs and severely bruised and bloodied victims. Among them were six young women from Mufakose township who were dragged out of the shop they work in and beaten up because police said the red company logos on their T-shirts were MDC symbols.

The state media has blacked out all information on the assaults but Sikhanyiso Ndlovu, the Information Minister, made a tacit admission yesterday when he said: “Those who incite violence or actually cause and participate in unleashing it are set to pay a heavy price.”

Human rights organisations reported a continuing run of arrests in Harare yesterday, the second city of Bulawayo, the eastern city of Mutare, the central city of Gweru and the nearby industrial town of Kwekwe, some of them related to firebombing incidents in Harare and Gweru on Tuesday.

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