Millions of followers of pop princess Britney Spears got the shock of their life when a message saying that she had passed away was posted on her official Twitter page.

But it was later revealed that the Toxic hitmaker had fallen victim to Internet hackers who targeted her page to shock her followers, reported Contactmusic.

Representatives for Spears immediately contacted the micro blogging site, who shut down part of the service to discover the "vulnerability" that led to the system being hacked.

Meanwhile the message was quickly removed, and a message was sent out to fans through the website itself setting the record straight. "Britney's Twitter was just hacked. The last message is obviously not true. She is fine and dandy spending a quiet day at home relaxing," the post read.

It is the second time Spears' Twitter page had been attacked by pranksters. Hackers had posted a series of expletive messages on her page in January this year.