HARRY Potter mania swept west and north Wiltshire on Saturday, May 11, when the long awaited video and DVD of the first film went on sale.

Copies of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone were released for sale at midnight on Friday.

Fans eager to snap up their copies started queuing hours before at Tesco's superstore in Trowbridge.

Shoppers began arriving around 10.30pm and by midnight there were around 80 in the queue.

Customer services manager Peter Reece said: "By the time we were able to start selling, there was quite a queue.

"We sold 79 videos and DVDs in the first 20 minutes. It was far busier than we were expecting, and has been going very well."

The store ran a promotion so the first five customers to buy a DVD were refunded, as were the first five to buy the video.

Mr Reece said the video and DVD has continued to sell well during the week.

In Chippenham, the DVD version of the film sold out on Saturday morning.

A spokesman said: "It has been very busy. We have sold out of DVDs and the videos have been going very well."

WH Smith in Chippenham laid on extra staff to deal with the rush on Saturday.

Senior sales assistant Michael Gearing said DVDs were selling particularly well.

He said: "Videos used to sell more than DVDs but 60 per cent of the sales have been DVDs.

"It is selling very well, Saturday and Sunday were very busy.

"We took on extra staff and opened at 7.30am on Saturday, maybe a bit early, but we had people buying it within an hour."

Dixons in Warminster had 53 DVDs and sold out by 1.30pm on Saturday.

Sales assistant Eddie Houghton said: "We had about seven or eight people waiting outside when we opened, which has never happened before."

Sabrina Williams, a sales assistant at Co-op in Westbury, said the film was selling fast.

"We sold the first batch of our videos and DVDs on Sunday, and got more copies in on Tuesday."

In Melksham shoppers were waiting for the doors to open at the town's Woolworths store.

Service team leader Liz Reid said: "We had a few people queuing outside when we opened at 8am. I haven't seen that since Elton John's Candle In The Wind 1997 single."