Britney Spears has asked fans for their “wishes and prayers” after her eight-year-old niece was injured in an ATV accident.
Maddie, the daughter of Britney’s sister Jamie Lynn, was taken to hospital on Sunday after the vehicle she was in drove into a pond on a property in Louisiana.
A statement from the Tangipahoa Parish Sheriff’s Office said she is in “a stable but critical condition”.
Britney posted a picture of her niece on Twitter with a message to fans.
The police statement, which does not name Maddie, said she was driving a Polaris off-road vehicle and, as she tried to avoid running over a drainage ditch, “overcorrected causing the ATV to enter the pond”.
Family members dove in but were unable to get her out of the vehicle. She was then freed by ambulance services and taken to hospital.
Britney’s sister Jamie Lynn, 25, wasn’t on the trip but her husband Jamie Watson – Maddie’s stepdad – posted a photo on Instagram hours before the accident in Arcola, Louisiana.
Jamie Lynn’s father, Jamie Spears was the first family member to speak out about the incident and told Entertainment Tonight: “All I can say is pray for our baby Maddie.”
Jamie Lynn has been off the radar for several years after three years as the star of the Nickelodeon series Zoey 101.
But aside from being best known as Britney’s kid sister, she made headlines of her own back in 2007 when she became pregnant with Maddie at 16; the child, whose father is Jamie Lynn’s ex Casey Aldridge, was born June 19, 2008.