London, December 4 Thousands of Harry Potter fans, including those who especially flew down from around the world, had lined up until midnight to grab the new book in the series.

Voracious readers flocked to London to get hold of the first copies of author J.K. Rowling's 'The Tales of Beedle the Bard', which is expected to become an international best-seller.

The collection of short stories mentioned in the final book of the boy wizard series has had a global print count of nearly 7.5 million copies, reports the Telegraph.

Bookseller Waterstone's spokesman Jon Howells said: "We are expecting it to go straight to number one for Christmas, sales for tomorrow alone should be well into six figures.

"It's in with a fighting chance to become the best-selling book of the year, which is pretty remarkable when you think how little time there is left in the race." (ANI)