Britney back in hospital to ‘get help’

BRITNEY SPEARS was taken to hospital yesterday 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 Ms Spears was being placed on “a mental evaluation hold” in Los Angeles’s UCLA Medical Centre after her 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”.

A few hours earlier the motorcade that pulled away from Ms Spears’s 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 Ms 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 sons to ex-husband Kevin Federline, who has custody.

Officers had paramedics take Ms 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 the singer’s hilltop residence off Mulholland Drive on Monday night after someonereported a swarm ofpaparazzi trespassing in her gated community.

When officers arrived, they did not see anyone trespassing, police said, but citations were issued for several illegally parked cars.

Ms Spears has been in a highly public downward spiral since filing for divorce from Mr Federline in November 2006. Her 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 she showed up at the civil courts building for a chance to have an order changed to allow her to see her sons.

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