U2's new album leaked online

London, February 22 (ANI): U2's latest album has been leaked into cyberspace before its scheduled worldwide release in March.

The band's 'No Line on the Horizon' caught the eye of thousands of fans who were said to be downloading the album on the file sharing site Pirate Bay.

According to the file sharing news website TorrentFreak, 100,000 surfers had already laid their hands on the copies in the first ten hours of it being available online, reports Times Online.

The much-awaited album, the group's first in five years, was grabbed illegally despite repeated attempts made by the rockers to prevent it from leaking on the Internet.

The precautions allegedly included U2's refusal to send review copies of the album to the media in a bid to avoid a repeat leak like that in last August.

Manager Paul McGuinness had previously made expressed his wrath about illegal file sharing, saying Internet service providers "enjoyed a bonanza" by taking fees from pirates. (ANI)