Screaming fans greet Potter's scariest film

Screaming teenage girls greeted Daniel Radcliffe at the world premiere of the latest Harry Potter film last night in New York.

Screaming teenage girls greeted Daniel Radcliffe at the world premiere of the latest Harry Potter film last night in New York.

Hundreds of fans whipped themselves into a frenzy as the bewildered 14-year-old actor stepped on to the red carpet at the Radio City Music Hall in Manhattan last night. "It's astonishing - it's really scary but it's brilliant," Radcliffe said. "We have worked on the film for 11 months and it's really gratifying that everyone came out to support it."

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban is the third film in the Harry Potter series, from which the author, JK Rowling, has made more than £430m.

Radcliffe said the boy wizard Harry Potter had grown up in the latest movie, just as he had in real life. "You have to change the character. If you give the same performance in each film it's going to get old very fast. So I think it's important to change the character. I'm the same age as Harry Potter so we kind of grow up together," he said.

Emma Watson, 14, who plays Hermione Granger, said the film has a different style to its predecessors. Chris Columbus, who directed the first two, has been replaced in the director's chair by Alfonso Cuaron. "It's evolved to a different level. It's darker," Watson said. "In this film [Hermione] fights back - she's rock and roll." The Prisoner of Azkaban will open in the UK on 31 May.