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Police in Pakistan said yesterday they defused a bomb the previous night outside a packed shopping centre where the latest Harry Potter book was scheduled to be launched.
"Police foiled an attempt to blow up a car bomb by remote control outside the Pak Towers and defused 10kg of explosives in a stolen car," said Karachi police investigation chief Manzoor Mughal.
"Had it exploded it would have caused a huge loss of lives."
The launch of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows was postponed until later in the day.
"There were several hundred people inside Pak Towers at the time we received the call from an unknown person that a bomb was about to explode," Mughal said.
Meanwhile, Potter fans poured into bookstores around the world to get hold of the seventh and final volume in the series and discover the secret of the boy wizard's fate.
It hit the shelves across most of the world at 11.01 yesterday morning NZ time, in a release carefully orchestrated to maximise suspense and sales.
Dressed as witches, Hogwarts heroes, Death Eaters and Muggles, die-hard followers braved torrential rain in London, and awoke at dawn in Australia and India to snap up copies.
The book was released in the United States at midnight. In New York, two teenaged boys disguised as wizards ran around with brooms between their legs, playing a pretend game of quidditch, much to the delight of fans outside Barnes & Noble's Union Square store.
Social worker Julia Schafer, 26, stood at the back of a line that began in the store and stretched around the block, anxiously waiting to find out her hero's fate.
"I would really hope that Voldemort dies. The evil has to end," she said.
Others prepared for a long, sleepless night. "I'm undoubtedly going to read the book before going to bed today," said Robin Holland at a shop in West London.
In Sydney, about 1500 fans rode two steam trains from the city centre to a secret destination where bookstore staff were preparing to hand out copies.
One fan had to be rescued from a lake in Canberra on Friday after he dived in to rescue a pre-purchase receipt necessary to pick up his book.
In Mumbai, children tried to guess what would happen to Harry after author J K Rowling said last year that at least two main characters would die by the end of the seventh novel.
"I have a bet with my friends that Harry is not going to die," said Abhigyan Jain, a young fan dressed as a Death Eater.
The excitement comes despite plot leaks on the internet, some of which proved to be genuine when compared with the hard version. A mistake by one US online retailer also meant up to 1200 copies were sent to buyers several days early.
Rowling, 41, said she was "staggered" when two US papers ran reviews on Friday, and yesterday, France's Le Parisien published a short summary of the final book's epilogue, printing it upside down to give readers a chance to look away.
The leaks and spoilers have been a major headache for Potter publishers, who spent millions of dollars trying to keep the contents a secret.
Twelve million copies of the book have been printed for the American market alone. Online retailer Amazon.com said its global pre-orders hit a record 2.2 million, and Deathly Hallows is tipped to become the fastest-selling book in history.
- REUTERS
