The Roxy Music singer's son, Merlin Ferry, is in a "critical" condition in hospital after suffering multiple fractures to his legs, pelvis and left arm as well as a head injury as a result of a three-vehicle collision in Shropshire, central England, on Monday night (22.12.14).

Firefighters spent more than 45 minutes trying to get the 69-year-old musician's son out of the wreckage which left his silver Volvo car unidentifiable, with his brother Otis, 32, describing it as a "mangled box of tin."

Merlin is being treated in the critical care unit at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, central England, after having a life-saving operation, and was said to have woken up yesterday morning (23.12.14) thinking he had missed Christmas.

Otis wrote on Instagram: "He had a head-on collision, has lots of broken bones and is having an operation on his heart as we speak. He was conscious before he went into theatre and his biggest concern was that he had missed Christmas! He is in the best possible hospital for this type of procedure. (sic)"

Bryan - who has two other children, Isaac and Tara - is thought to be by Merlin's bedside at the hospital, where he was taken after the incident which occurred on a country lane.

Of the horrific incident, the West Midlands Ambulance Service spokesman said: "On arrival, crews found two cars that had suffered massive damage after a collision.The trapped man was in the first car. The driver, who was estimated to be about 30 years old had suffered multiple fractures to his legs, pelvis, left arm and had a head injury. Working with firefighters, ambulance staff very carefully freed him. He was assessed at the scene and had splints put in place along with advanced pain relief before being taken on blue lights to the Major Trauma Centre at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham. The trauma doctor travelled with the patient. The driver of the second car had managed to get out of his vehicle. It suffered a small fire but a member of the public used a fire extinguisher to put it out. The man, who was estimated to be in his 40s, had suffered minor injuries, but due to the level of damage to the vehicles, was taken to Royal Shrewsbury Hospital for precautionary checks."

One of the other drivers is said to have escaped the crash with minor injuries, and the third motorist was not injured.

Otis later took to his Twitter to thank Wellington Fire Service for getting his brother out of the wreckage. He also advised Nile Rodgers to give Bryan a call 'cause everything done via twitter generally ends up in the press...

Merlin was joined by Isaac, Tara and Otis at Buckingham Palace three years ago to see their father - who divorced their mother Lucy in 2003 after 21 years of marriage - pick up a CBE for both his international success with his group Roxy Music and his solo career.