Reports say Saudi Prince Mansour bin Moqren, the deputy governor of Asir province and son of a former crown prince, was trying to flee the kingdom at the time when his helicopter went down.

The Saudi prince was killed on Sunday when the helicopter with several officials on board crashed near the kingdom’s southern border with war-torn Yemen.

Moqren, a known opponent of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, was fleeing the country with a number of other princes when the chopper crashed, a report by the Middle East Eye says.

Meanwhile, the Israeli newspaper Yediot Aharonot has claimed that the chopper has been targeted by a Saudi fighter jet.

News of the crash comes as Riyadh pursues a sweeping purge of the kingdom’s upper ranks, with dozens of princes, ministers and a billionaire tycoon arrested as bin Salman tries to boost his grip on power.

When the purge was launched on Saturday, there was a ban on the movement of all private planes.