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Saudi Prince Mansour bin Muqrin and seven other people were killed in a helicopter crash near the country's border with war-torn Yemen, it was reported.

Chilling footage obtained by Al Arabiya TV shows the passengers boarding the aircraft shortly before it went down and disappeared from radar.

Everyone on board - including senior government officials and a mayor - died in the crash, local media reported.

They were reportedly taking a helicopter tour of development projects near the coast.

The prince was the deputy governor of Saudi Arabia's south-western Asir region, where Sunday's incident occurred, and the son of a former crown prince.

(Image: alarabiya.net) (Image: alarabiya.net)

Asir region shares a short border with Yemen.

The cause of the crash has not been revealed.

It occurred a day after 11 princes, four ministers and tens of former ministers were arrested in an anti-corruption purge launched by Saudi Arabia's future king, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

Billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal - owner of a firm which invests in companies including Citigroup and Twitter - was among those held.

And the crash also came a day after Saudi Arabia's defence forces shot down a long-range ballistic missile fired towards the capital Riyadh by Yemen's Houthi rebels.

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(Image: Twitter)

The missile was intercepted near King Khaled airport.

A Saudi-led coalition accused the Houthis of a "dangerous escalation" amid the ongoing civil war in Yemen.

Coalition spokesman Colonel Turki al-Maliki said: "The Houthis' dangerous escalation came because of Iranian support."

Iran has denied accusations it has supplied weapons to the Houthis during the conflict which has claimed thousands of lives.

Saudi Arabia has put a bounty worth millions of pounds on 40 Houthi leaders.