Britney taken to hospital 'for her own safety'

Britney Spears was taken to hospital today amid fears she might harm herself.

The pop singer was escorted in an ambulance by more than a dozen police officers in cars, on motorcycles and in helicopters.

A police officer said the 26-year-old was being taken to “get help”.

Celebrity websites reported that Spears was being placed on “a mental evaluation hold” in Los Angeles’ UCLA Medical Centre after her new psychiatrist felt she was a danger to herself and others.

Her mother, Lynne, was seen leaving its psychiatric hospital. Asked if her daughter was OK, she replied, “Yeah,” before leaving in a Range Rover.

A few hours earlier the motorcade that pulled away from Spears’ home was nearly the length of a football field. Along with the ambulance, it included police on nearly a dozen motorcycles and in two cars. Two police helicopters followed overhead.

The scene was more controlled than the one earlier this month when Spears also was taken away from her home in an ambulance.

On January 3, police were called to her home when she refused to return her two young sons, Sean Preston, two, and one-year-old Jayden James to ex-husband Kevin Federline, who has custody.

Officers had paramedics take Spears to a hospital for undisclosed reasons. She was released after a day and a half in Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.

Police also went to Spears’ hilltop residence off Mulholland Drive on Monday night after someone reported a swarm of paparazzi trespassing in the singer’s gated community. When officers arrived, they did not see anyone trespassing, police said, but citations were issued for several illegally parked cars.

Spears has been in a highly public downward spiral since filing for divorce from Federline in November 2006.

Her bizarre antics include shaving her head, attacking a car with an umbrella and bringing along a paparazzo pal on trips to a courthouse in her child custody case.

Spears’ child custody case has become a public spectacle, with her skipping depositions and twice this month arriving at the courthouse but not attending the hearing.

The most recent incident was last week, when Spears showed up at the civil courts building for a chance to persuade a Superior Court commissioner to change his order and allow her to see her sons.

Dressed as if arriving for a cocktail party, wearing bright pink lipstick, sunglasses, shiny gold platform shoes and a very short black dress with a ruffled hem, Spears was driven into an underground garage and then entered the courthouse.

A court spokesman said she got through a security metal detector, then announced, “I want to leave,” and returned to her car.