HARARE, Zimbabwe — A defiant and angry President Robert Mugabe yesterday lashed out at Western support for what he called violent opposition activists and told his growing number of critics to “go hang.”The US, colonial ruler Britain and other Western governments stepped up their criticism of Mugabe’s hard-line rule after police cracked down Sunday on a prayer meeting organised by the opposition, arresting dozens and allegedly beating many severely.

In Mugabe’s first public remarks since the main opposition leader said he was assaulted by police, state radio quoted the president as saying he took “great exception” to the support the West has given his opponents.

“When they criticise the government when it tries to prevent violence and punish perpetrators of that violence, we take the position that they can go hang,” the British Broadcasting Corp. quoted him as saying.

Mugabe spoke after a five-hour meeting yesterday with President Jakaya Kikwete of Tanzania, according to state radio. Kikwete has been tapped to help calm Zimbabwe’s turmoil.

Main opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, head of the Movement for Democratic Change, and scores of other activists were injured as police cracked down on a weekend opposition meeting. One activist was shot dead Sunday in the Harare township of Highfield.

Tsvangirai, 54, was awaiting the results of a brain scan after doctors reported they suspected a skull fracture, brain injury and internal bleeding.

Mugabe’s critics at home and abroad accuse him of repression and corruption and blame him for acute food shortages and the world’s highest inflation. Sunday’s violence heightened growing tensions in urban strongholds of the opposition, and renewed questions about how long Mugabe can maintain his tight grip on power.

British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett yesterday directly blamed Mugabe’s government for unleashing “quite appalling” violence against members of the opposition, and protesters.

“Everybody’s horrified and it’s absolutely clear that there is direct responsibility from the government of Zimbabwe,” Beckett told reporters at her office.

She said Britain would be seeking talks with fellow European Union countries to strengthen measures the 27-nation body has already taken against Zimbabwe.

Police yesterday reported renewed unrest in the second city of Bulawayo on Thursday, where suspected opposition supporters erected barricades, some heaped with burning tires, in suburban streets, the radio said.

There were no details of arrests or injuries there.

Information Minister Sikhanyiso Ndlovu also accused the opposition of inciting the violence.

He said the Western media sought to “absolve and whitewash the MDC for obvious inescapable blame for the public violence.”

The Financial Gazette, an independent weekly newspaper, yesterday quoted unidentified sources in Mugabe’s politburo, the ruling party’s highest policy making body, saying it discussed imposing a state of emergency to curb rising anger in the country at a meeting Wednesday.

In an apparent show of force yesterday, a military helicopter swept over Harare and government vehicles escorted by motorcycle outriders and a bus bedecked with ruling party flags headed through the city.

Police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena said what he called “an orgy of violence” was spreading across the country, state radio reported.

“The violence is now taking a grave dimension. The attacks are assuming a militia style ... and the response by police will be proportionate to such attacks,” Bvudzijena said.

Police on Wednesday reported that three policewomen were injured in a gasoline bomb attack on a police station in Marimba district in western Harare.

In another attack against a police station in the central city of Gweru on Tuesday, raiders used tear gas not of the same type used by security forces, he said.

Police said they suspected opposition activists were responsible. Eliphas Mukonoweshuro, an aide to Tsvangirai, denied any opposition involvement in any of the attacks.

Australia’s Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said Thursday his government was concerned for the well-being of about 700 Australians living in “catastrophic” Zimbabwe.

Tanzania is one of three Southern African nations appointed by a regional bloc to try to help calm economic and political turmoil in Zimbabwe.

Tanzanian President Kikwete heads the political and diplomatic panel of the 14-nation Southern African Development Community.

African nations in the SADC bloc, including neighbouring South Africa, have been accused of not doing enough to mediate over Zimbabwe and bridge differences between Mugabe and his Western critics.

Human rights groups said worsening poverty and discontent fuelled growing anger against authorities.

The Brussels-based International Crisis Group said earlier this month that deep divisions within Mugabe’s own ruling party also appeared to have “energised” often placid Zimbabweans to take to the streets, and it warned of further sudden civil unrest.

The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions, which is linked to the opposition, has called for a national protest strike in early April.

Independent human rights groups have reported discontent in the poorly paid security forces.