A routine shopping trip for pop superstar Beyoncé Knowles involved two chauffeur-driven people carriers and a group of bodyguards as she drove 15 yards across the road, according to reports.

The singer, 27, emerged from the Mandarin Oriental hotel in Knightsbridge, London, where she was met by a crowd of photographers and fans.The group of autograph hunters were hoping to get a glimpse of the diva, as well as Britney Spears, who is also staying at the hotel.

According to The Daily Mail, Knowles quickly moved into one of the people carriers, but rather than travel through London for a shopping trip, the two cars drove a few feet up the street, performed a U-turn and pulled up outside Harvey Nichols, directly opposite the Mandarin.Following a 20-minute guided tour of the department store, the singer and her entourae returned to the cars and repeated their trip across the road.

The singer was in the city to perform at the O2 Arena.Knowles, who is in London with her husband, American rapper Jay-Z, reportedly invited Spears to her opening show at the O2, and the subsequent afterparty. But Spears apparently decided to spend the night in the hotel with her two sons, Sean Preston, three, and Jayden-James, two.

Earlier this year Knowles attracted criticism from Austrian newspapers after reportedly sending a lookalike to her own special personal tour of the Albertina, one of Vienna's most famous museums, which attracts around one million visitors each year.