British IndyCar driver Dan Wheldon has been killed after a crash in Las Vegas.

The 33-year-old was airlifted to hospital after the 15-car pile-up on Lap 12, but he was later pronounced dead.

"IndyCar is very sad to announce that Dan Wheldon has passed away from unsurvivable injuries," Randy Bernard, CEO of IndyCar, said in a statement. "Our thoughts and prayers are with his family today."

"I've never seen such a mess in my entire career on the race track," said driver Danica Patrick before the announcement. "It was like a movie scene, it was as if they were trying to make it look as gnarly as possible.

"It was debris everywhere across the whole track, you could smell the smoke, you could see there was a chunk of fire we were driving around out there."

The race was subsequently called off and the drivers did a five-lap salute for their fallen colleague.

Wheldon leaves behind his wife, Susie, and their two children.

> In Profile: The career of Dan Wheldon
> Tributes pour in for Wheldon