Two children on McRae helicopter

Rally champion Colin McRae, his five-year-old son, a six-year-old boy and a family friend were killed in a helicopter crash, police believe.

Strathclyde Police released the names of the four people they thought were on board the crashed aircraft on Saturday.

Mr McRae, 39, his son Johnny, the youngster's friend Ben Porcelli and family friend Graeme Duncan, 37, were all thought to be on board.

Formal identification is expected in the next few days.

Air accident investigators have started searching the helicopter crash site near Mr McRae's home in Lanarkshire on Saturday.

About 40 firefighters attended the accident which happened in woods just north of Lanark at 1600 BST.

Users of the rally champion's official website http://www.colinmcrae.com were greeted by a black screen on Sunday with no information available.

Police have been at the scene throughout the night and a cordon has been thrown around the area, including a private road up to the McRae family home.

Mr McRae, 39, who is married with two young children, was Britain's first rally world champion in 1995 and is the son of five times British rallying champion Jimmy McRae.

Speaking in the Scotland on Sunday newspaper, David Lowry, 48, who owns New Steadings Farm, near Mr McRae's home, witnessed the crash.

He said: "I was speaking to one of my friends on the farm. The helicopter came overhead and then dropped into the valley.

Wider fame

"After it disappeared I saw smoke rising from the trees and phoned the emergency services.

"I could not see what happened when it went down. It did not seem to be in any trouble. It was about half a mile from me and the helicopter seemed to be flying normally.

"It was navy blue in colour and I am led to believe it belongs to Colin McRae. It is up so often my cattle don't even flinch when it is overhead."

He added: "I know him well enough to say hello to, although I don't know him personally. If it turns out to be him it will have an unbelievable effect on the local community.

"Colin is a very popular person around here. We only moved here seven years ago, but they are a Lanark family born and bred."

Mr McRae admitted to enjoying the adrenaline rush of activities such as bungee jumping and was a keen pilot.

He moved to the principality of Monaco in 1995, partly through his friendship with David Coulthard.

But as his family grew up, he spent more time back at his home in Lanarkshire. He and his wife Alison bought the 17th century Jerviswood House.

Rev Bryan Kerr, minister of Lanark Greyfriars Church and a neighbour of the McRae family, said: "A lot of people have been stunned by this and our thoughts go out to all of the families affected.

Video games

"This will be hugely devastating, particularly in such a small community. You just don't expect these things to happen on your doorstep especially when it is someone who is so well known and well liked in the town.

"The town's ministers have spoken to each other and special prayers will be offered for all those affected by the tragedy and remembering those who are working on the rescue efforts and trying to piece together what happened."

His brother, Alister, is also a professional rally driver and has enjoyed some success, including winning the British Rally Championship in 1995.

Mr McRae's sister is a doctor at the University Hospital in County Durham and she too enjoys rally driving.

He also achieved wider fame by endorsing a range of successful video games. Codemasters released the first Colin McRae Rally title in 1998.

Colin McRae: DiRT was the title for the latest installment of the games series which launched this year on PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

This is awful news. R.I.P Colin.

This is awful news. R.I.P Colin.

This is terrible news, I was shocked to hear this yesterday.

Then when I got to work this morning I read this

spooky

holy shit