Fans of Britney Spears could not believe the news that she has died. An announcement from Sony Music via Twitter said hat the singer had died due to an accident but apparently this was all a cruel death hoax. Sony's Twitter account was hacked by a group called Our Mine. The announcement tried to ride the trending news of another celebrity death; Britney Spears death hoax was announced hours after George Michael's demise was officially announced to the public.

The Sun was first to report about Britney's apparent death and recalled that Sony Music Global made the announcement on December 16 saying "britney spears is dead by accident! we will tell you more soon #RIPBritney" .

After a few minutes another similar tweet followed saying "RIP @britneyspears #RIPBritney 1981- 2016." The pranksters were able to turn heads gathering more than 900 retweets and hundreds of comments in just a few minutes. The cruel joke has been since deleted.

News.com also reported on the hoax saying that Our Mine Security, who claimed responsibility for the joke, said that "We detected usual activity on the account and we checked the account if it's hacked or not." A new IP was able to hack into Sony's social media account and therefore Britney's death was all a cruel sick joke. She was indeed alive and well.

As all the commotion about her death was happening, Britney was enjoying Christmas with her boys. A spokesperson for the "Toxic" singer said that it was all a hoax and the tweets were deleted. Britney's last tweet was a video of her two sons Sean and Jayden enjoying zip lining and hunting with their cousins.

This was actually not the first time that Britney Spears fell victim to a death hoax. Back in 2001 when she and Justin Timberlake were a couple, radio DJs joked that the couple died in a car accident.

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