Harry Potter and the stolen £40k 1st edition

A MANHUNT is under way after a rare first edition Harry Potter worth £40,000 was stolen from a shop.

The hardcover 1997 copy of JK Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, pictured, was among a number of valuable items taken from online retailer S N Books after a breakin in the early hours of January 9.

Other prized first editions stolen from the store in Thetford, Norfolk, include a signed copy of The Colour of Magic by Terry Pratchett worth £9,000 and a 1937 hardback of The Hobbit valued at £7,000.

Police are hunting two men and are urging book dealers and specialists to be ‘vigilant’ to anyone trying to sell the stolen editions.

PC Gideon Weigelt-Holmes of Norfolk Police said: ‘These books are very rare and in some cases unique.’