Harry Potter fans say publishers of his latest adventure have lost the plot and ruined months of eager anticipation.

The latest book - Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix - hit the shelves at the weekend, clocking up sales of almost 1.8 million on Saturday alone.

But for some readers, the tale of the teenage wizard has lost some of its magic because their copies are missing almost 100 pages.

Stevie Welfare, 11, was one of the first children to get her hands on a copy, which she bought from Tesco on Station Road, Portslade.

Her mum Sarah, 32, said: "We bought the Harry Potter book on Saturday morning.

"My daughter was reading it but last night got to page 96 and the next page was 193. There was a whole chunk not there at all.

"My daughter was disappointed big time. She's a very big fan and even tried to audition to be in the film."

Staff in the Tesco store confirmed "one or two" other people had brought copies back because pages were missing. They were all offered exchanges.

A Tesco spokeswoman said the chain sold 317,400 copies nationwide in the first 24 hours - an average of 220 a minute.

Tesco book buyer Caroline Ridding said: "The book has now broken all our sales records and there is no doubt that this will be the best selling book we have ever stocked."

Seb Brown, manager of WH Smith in Churchill Square, said the store sold 1,800 copies on Saturday and a further 750 since, none of which have been returned.

He said: "No other book would have sold that amount - if you sell 50 copies of a new book, that is going well."

However, other fans in the UK also reported pages missing and thousands of readers in Australia and New Zealand were disappointed to find two chapters missing from some editions.

A spokeswoman for publisher Bloomsbury said: "In every print run there are a few books that unfortunately slip through.

"With a run this size, there are going to be a couple. Everyone who has a faulty copy just needs to return it and we will credit them."