The Prodigy's Keith Flint has been found dead at his Essex mansion after taking his own life aged 49.

Confirming his shock death in an emotional statement on the band's Instragram page, current members Liam Howlett and Leeroy Thornhill revealed it was suicide.

"The news is true, I can’t believe I’m saying this but our brother Keith took his own life over the weekend," they wrote.

"I’m shell shocked, f**kin angry, confused and heart broken ..... r.i.p brother Liam #theprodigy"

Keith's wife, DJ Mayumi Kai, is believed to have been in Japan at the time of his death.

(Image: Axel Seidemann/AP/PA Photos)

(Image: PA)

Police and the ambulance service were called to the Essex home they shared at 8.10am on Monday after an unnamed person raised the alarm.

However, the iconic star was pronounced dead at the scene.

"We were called to concerns for the welfare of a man at an address in Brook Hill, North End, just after 8.10am on Monday," a spokesperson for Essex Police said.

"We attended and, sadly, a 49-year-old man was pronounced dead at the scene. His next of kin have been informed.

(Image: CAMERA PRESS)

(Image: PA)

"The death is not being treated as suspicious and a file will be prepared for the coroner."

The Prodigy found huge fame after emerging from the underground rave scene in the early 1990s.

They went on to become one of the UK's biggest bands, but Keith once admitted he became suicidal when a decade of drink and drug abuse caused the band to collapse in the early noughties.

"I got bang into coke, weed, drinking a lot. This made me reclusive, boring and shallow," he told The Times.

"I'd line up rows of pills and just take them and take them and I'd lose track of how many until I passed out."

Admitting he thought about killing himself, he added, "But you need a lot of balls to kill yourself. I was a coward."

His demons sparked a huge fallout with bandmate Liam Howlett before the band's manager John Fairs helped him kick the drugs ahead of their 2009 comeback.

(Image: Daily Record)

"I got heavily into booze and drugs and flooded myself with that, like a sponge. And then I reeled it in," he told WENN.

And he said performing had become his new narcotic.

"It's like my drug. You've got to go out there firing. There's nothing sadder than watching a heavyweight boxer and he's out of shape and getting bashed around."

Keith first joined the band as a singer and dancer after meeting Prodigy founder Liam Howlett at a rave he was DJ-ing.

They were joined by keyboardist Leeroy and MC Maxim, and released their debut single Charly in August 1991.

(Image: JOHN McLELLAN)

Their second single, Everybody in the Place, shot up the charts to number 2 in December 1991, beaten only by Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody after Freddie Mercury's death.

They got to the No1 spot in the UK singles chart with their famous song Firestarter and again with Breathe in 1996.

The Prodigy also had six No1 albums including the hard-core rave influenced The Fat of the Land which went double platinum.

Keith became an iconic figure in the British music scene thanks to his energetic live performances and his distinctive look of wild hair and lots of tattoos.

The singer was born in Redbridge, East London, before moving to Braintree, Essex as a child.

(Image: Mirrorpix)

He battled severe dyslexia, clashed with his father and was so disruptive at school that he was referred to a psychologist.

At his worst, he'd lock himself in his room listening to the Jam and banging his head against the wall.

The psychologists determined that nothing could be done for him.

"I've always had mental problems, so to speak. I'm incredibly self-destructive," he told The Times.

Keith famously dated TV presenter Gail Porter in the 1990s, but his self-destruction was only curbed when he met and later married Japanese DJ, Mayumi Kai.

(Image: Young Richard)

"We were touring and she just walked into this room we were in, and you know how it is, I just couldn't talk, I was overwhelmed," he said.

"I'd done my share of drugs and shagging around. Look, we all like to get busy, but in truth I was a bit worn through with it."

It was around the time of their marriage that he quit drugs, alcohol and cigarettes in favour of a quiet life in the country.

He ran a genteel country pub in Essex until 2017 where he kept a swearbox above the fire. Whenever he put the logs and kindling in, write Steve Anglesey recalled how anyone who made the obvious joke would be charged a quid.

When Keith wasn't working, he spent his time jogging, cycling or enjoying the outdoors with his wife and six dogs.

"We like to take picnics and sandwiches, driving through the green lanes. My wife loves the house, the dogs, and the animals we have around us, the deer and the fox that comes and pokes his head through the hedge," he once said.

"It's very boring and very un-rock'n'roll to talk about it."

Keith and his bandmates were in the middle of a new tour at the time of his death.

They had played in New Zealand at the start of February and were due to go out again on tour next month to Columbia.

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