THE billionaire Thai owner of Leicester City and King Power Racing died when his helicopter crashed just metres from the club’s stadium on Saturday.

The club issued a statement late on Sunday confirming Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha and four others were killed when the aircraft fell from the sky and burst into flames at the south east end of the King Power Stadium at about 8.30pm.

It said the 60-year-old, who bought Leicester for £39 million in 2010, led it to a first Premier League title in 2015-16 and has since invested heavily in racehorse ownership was a “great man”.

The club added: “It is with the deepest regret and a collective broken heart that we confirm our chairman, Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha, was among those to have tragically lost their lives on Saturday evening when a helicopter carrying him and four other people crashed outside King Power Stadium. None of the five people on-board survived.

“The primary thoughts of everyone at the club are with the Srivaddhanaprabha family and the families of all those on-board at this time of unspeakable loss.”

Under the banner King Power Racing, Srivaddhanaprabha’s blue and white silks have become more prominent in recent months, and he enjoyed an across the card double at Doncaster and Newbury on Saturday.

At the time of his passing he had 67 horses in training with seven trainer. Andrew Balding trained almost half of them, including Beat The Bank, who has won three times at Group 2 level.

At the bloodstock sales, the owner was usually represented by Alastair Donald of the Sackville-Donald agency. The billionaire businessman has been the leading buyer at the Goffs London Sale for the past two years and has been very active at all the major yearling sales.