Police in Chicago are frantically searching for singer Sinead O’Connor after she went missing in the city over the weekend, with fears that she may be suicidal.

The 49 year old singer has been classified as “missing suicidal”, according to TMZ, after she went out for a bike ride in the suburb of Wilmette in the city early on Sunday morning (May 15th) and failed to return.

Wilmette Department of Police confirmed to the press the following day that an unidentified person raised the alarm after expressing “concern for her well-being”, and that Sgt. Michael Robinson sent out a ‘check-for-well-being’ alert.

Sinead O'ConnorSinead O'connor has been reported missing amid fears she is suicidal, according to Chicago police

This development has taken place soon after O’Connor was attacked in the press over comments she had made over Prince (the man who provided her with her signature hit ‘Nothing Compares 2 U’) and talk show host Arsenio Hall, who has filed a libel lawsuit against her for publicly alleging that he provided the late star with drugs.

More: Sinead O’Connor found safe after concerning Facebook ‘overdose’ post [December 2015]

It has also happened in the context of O’Connor’s ongoing custody battle with her family over her 12-year old son Shane. Right before she was reported missing, she wrote on Facebook to her 28 year old son Jake Reynolds: “Do not abandon your brother or any other of my babies again. What you have done to your brother and your mother is LITERALLY criminal.”

Just before that, she had openly addressed Shane by pleading with him on Facebook in open letter to question his situation and ask why he can’t see her. “I have to back off because they are hurting me so badly I get unwell again if I go near them,” the distressed post read.

Back in December 2015, she admitted to having taken an overdose in a Dublin hotel in a suicide attempt. The note she left addressed the same situation, blaming family members, specifically her ex Donal Lunny (Shane’s father) and her other son Jake for not letting her see Shane, and also for betraying her and accusing them of “appalling cruelty”.

More: Arsenio Hall’s representative fires back at bizarre Sinead O’Connor drug claims