Britney Spears hospitalised again

By Jill Serjeant

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Troubled pop star Britney Spears was in a Los Angeles hospital on psychiatric hold for the second time in a month on Thursday after being taken from her home by ambulance under a police escort.

Spears, 26, whose life has grown increasingly erratic in the past 12 months, is being held for a three-day mental evaluation on the orders of her psychiatrist, her self-styled manager, Sam Lutfi, told celebrity news media.

"She went willingly. It was like something in her heart was telling her she should go. She knew something was wrong," Lutfi told People magazine.

News video showed more than a dozen police motorcycles and squad cars leaving Spears' Los Angeles home shortly after midnight on Thursday and taking her to the UCLA Medical Center.

The hospital declined to confirm Spears was a patient, citing confidentiality.

Road blocks were set up in a vain bid to deter paparazzi who have trailed the former pop phenomenon round the clock as her life has spun out of control.

Spears' estranged mother, Lynne, and her father, Jamie, were pictured leaving the hospital on Thursday along with Lutfi. Asked if her daughter was OK, Lynne Spears told a throng of reporters, "Yes."

Celebrity web site TMZ.com said the pop star's psychiatrist felt Spears was a danger to herself because of reckless driving and a recent deterioration in her behaviour.