Potter fan 'threatens to kill'

2005-10-04 12:46

Hanover - The stress of standing in line to buy the German edition of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince proved too much for a man in Germany, who ran amok and threatened to kill people unless he got a book, police said on Tuesday.

The unnamed 24-year-old man stormed into a book shop in the Hanover railway station and absconded with six copies of the German-language edition, which went on sale nationwide on Saturday.

Finding it hard to carry the books while running, he dashed into another shop on the railway concourse and pushed shoppers aside to demand a shopping bag from a sales clerk. He punched a customer in the face when admonished for being rude.

With police in hot pursuit, the Potter fan raced across a crowded train platform, threatening to kill anyone who got in his way. Officers finally tackled the man, who was unarmed aside from the six 900-page books.

"Suspect said he could not stand the suspense of not knowing who the half-blood prince was," a Hanover police spokesperson said.

"Suspect was informed that he will likely have plenty of time for reading long books in his jail cell."

JK Rowling's sixth instalment in the Harry Potter series has already broken all publishing records in Germany since its launch on Saturday, with more than a million copies sold nationwide.

Global sales of the books have reportedly surpassed 300 million, the agent for author JK Rowling said.

Agent Christopher Little said the series reached the milestone following the publication of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, the sixth volume about the schoolboy wizard.

Potter books have now been translated into 63 languages, most recently Farsi. - Sapa-dpa

- SAPA