US pop star Prince, 57, was found unresponsive on Thursday at his Minnesota home and was later declared dead, US media reports said.

A local sheriff's office official would not confirm the identity of a dead person found at Prince's property, and Reuters was not able to confirm the report.

Celebrity website TMZ, citing sources close to the star, was first to report Prince's death at the property in Paisley Park, Minnesota. The Associated Press later cited his publicist as confirming the report.

Representatives for the singer did not immediately respond to Reuters' requests for comment. The local medical examiner declined to comment.

Prince an innovative singer and songwriter whose music combined jazz, funk and disco is best known for hit songs like "Purple Rain," "Kiss" and "Raspberry Beret."

He first found fame in the late 1970s and over the next three decades became known as one of the most inventive and eccentric forces in American pop music.

Prince, an intensely private person, won multiple Grammy awards and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2004.