LONDON – Former World Rally champion Colin McRae was believed to be among four people killed in a helicopter crashed in Scotland, police said today.

McRae, Britain’s best-known rally driver, was thought to on board the helicopter, which was owned by him and crashed Saturday in a wooded area near his home in Lanark, police said.

McRae’s agent, Jean-Eric Freudiger, said in reports in The Sunday Times and the Sunday Telegraph that the 39-year-old driver had been piloting the helicopter. The reports also said his 5-year-old son, Johnny, was on board.

Calls to Freudiger’s Geneva office were not immediately answered. Official confirmation was expected later today.

Police said that four people were on board the helicopter, all of whom were feared dead. The aircraft was badly burned, making it impossible for police to immediately identify the occupants.

McRae is a licensed pilot who often flies in the area, police said. It wasn’t immediately known from where the helicopter had taken off or where it was headed.

McRae was the World Rally champion in 1995 and runner-up in 1996, 1997 and 2001. He won 25 races in a World Rally Championship career that ran from 1987 to 2004. He made intermittent appearances on the WRC circuit until 2006.

McRae, the son of five-time British rally champion Jimmy McRae, also competed in the Paris-to-Dakar rally race in 2004 and 2005 and in the Le Mans 24-hour race in 2005.

He and his wife, Alison, have two children, Hollie and Johnny.