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LEICESTER, England (Reuters) – Leicester City soccer club owner Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha, a Thai tycoon, was among five people on board a helicopter that crashed and then exploded after a Premier League match on Saturday, a source close to the club said.
Also on board were two pilots and one other person whose identity was not known, the source said on Sunday. The source also named a fifth person on board.
There was no confirmation that anyone on board survived, the source said. Leicester police said investigations into the crash would continue.
Vichai, a father of four and a founder of King Power International, is a huge fan of the club's fans of the United Kingdom in 2010 and they went on to the world by beating odds of 5,000 / 1 to win the Premier League title in 2016.
In Thailand, officials at King Power said that they should not be abstained when it comes to control of the crash. The club has not commented on the details of the crash.
The helicopter came down yards from the King's Power Stadium's grandstands in a car park club. Team manager Claude Puel was not on the helicopter, the source said.
According to the witnesses, the helicopter had barely cleared the top of the stadium before it started to spin. It then plummeted to the ground and burst into flames.
John Butcher, who was at the stadium at the time of the crash, told the BBC his helicopter was flying out of control.
"Luckily it was spiraling for a little while and everybody is coming out of the way, it's going to be a bit of a problem. . "
TITLE WIN
After pumping millions of pounds into the club, Vichai helped steer Leicester back into the air in 2014 before they stint the sport by beating the likes of Manchester United, Liverpool and Chelsea to become champions of England.
Hundreds of fans ugly flowers, football shirts and scarves outside the stadium in Vichai on Sunday morning.
He has brought the club up from the receivership, put the money in, built the team, won the Premiership, "68-year-old fan Richard Mobbs told Reuters.
"The future is looking bright or at least it was looking bright."
According to Forbes magazine, Vichai is the fifth-richest person in Thailand with an estimated net worth of $ 4.9 billion.
The self-made businessman's duty-free company, founded in 1989, was granted an airport monopoly in 2006 under the government of prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra. It continues to prosper even after Thaksin's ousting in a coup that year.
The family's empire also includes the Belgian football club, Oud-Heverlee Leuven.
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Freelance photographer Ryan Brown was covering the game and saw the helicopter clear the stadium before it crashed.
"Literally the engine stopped and I turned around," Brown told BBC Radio 5 Live. "It turned silent, blades started spinning and then there was a big bang."
Soccer fans in Thailand were shocked by the news of the crash.
"Thailand has the Leicester team -" Chuleeporn Kamonwasitkul said on a football field in Bangkok. "No matter if you're a fan of Leicester or not, all of the Thai people are sending our thoughts and praying for them to be safe."
Leicester had played a league at home against West Ham United on Saturday, drawing 1-1.
(Reporting by William Schomberg and Alex Fraser, by Jason Cairnduff, Patpicha Tanakasempipat and Aukkarapon Niyomyat, Writing by Paul Sandle and Kate Holton, Editing by Matthew Mpoke Bigg)
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