The mother of French actress Marie Trintignant, Nadine Trintignant, covers her daughter‘s face as they go to the airport from Vilnius University Hospital to repatriate the comatose actress to France, Vilnius, Lithuania, Thursday, July 31, 2003. A Lithuanian court Thursday extended the detention of French rock star Bertrand Cantat, the prime suspect in the alleged weekend beating that left the actress in a coma and close to death.

PHOTO – REUTERS

VILNIUS - Doctors treating French actress Marie Trintignant, who has been in a coma in a Lithuanian hospital since the weekend, said on Thursday she was very unlikely to survive. „She has a very bad brain trauma. Let‘s say the chances (of survival) would be very slim, or no chance at all,“ Tomas Saladis, deputy director at the Vilnius University Emergency Hospital told Reuters.

The actress, the daughter of French movie star Jean-Louis Trintignant, was taken to hospital with severe head injuries on Sunday after an incident at her hotel in Vilnius. Her rock singer boyfriend Bertrand Cantat, 39, appeared in court on Thursday and was formally arrested for 14 days while police investigate. The 41-year-old actress was in Lithuania making a film about the life of the French writer Colette directed by her mother Nadine Trintignant.

Cantat, lead singer with the French band Noir Desir, was admitted to hospital shortly after his girlfriend to be treated for alcohol poisoning and a suspected overdose of pills or drugs. A plane arrived in Vilnius from Paris on Thursday to take the actress home. But Saladis said she was unlikely to be moved while she was still alive. Reuters