Elderly 'French Elvis' rushed to hospital

PARIS - Agence France-Presse

AFP photo

French rocker Johnny Hallyday, a legend in his homeland, was being treated Monday in a Caribbean hospital after being rushed there by helicopter with heart problems, sources close to him said.
 
The latest incident came two and a half years after a health scare that nearly killed the singer, dubbed the "French Elvis", in Los Angeles.
 
French radio said the 69-year-old was holidaying on the French Caribbean island of Saint Barthelemy, a destination frequented by millionaires, when on Saturday he suffered a bout of tachycardia, or abnormally fast heartbeat.
 
He was taken by helicopter to Pointe-a-Pitre in Guadeloupe, a nearby French island in the Caribbean, the radio said, adding that his young wife Laeticia and other members of his family were with him in the hospital.
 
The singer's press office said it could not immediately confirm the reports, while his producer Gilbert Coullier said he would make a statement later Monday.
 
A source close to the singer however confirmed the radio reports.
 
Hallyday underwent emergency surgery and was briefly put into an induced coma in December 2009 after falling ill on a flight to Los Angeles from Paris, where he had had a hernia operation days before.
 
Despite being a French national icon, Hallyday moved to Switzerland in 2007, becoming a symbol of an exodus of high-earners fleeing France's relatively high tax rates to neighbouring jurisdictions.
 
He is currently in the middle of a major tour.