Hunger Games: Stars hit red carpet for world premiere of latest instalment

Stars of Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes have hit the red carpet for its world premiere.

Actress Rachel Zegler greeted screaming fans as the cast celebrated the upcoming film's release in London.

The latest instalment of the billion-dollar film franchise comes after an eight-year gap.

The night marked the first blockbuster premiere since Hollywood actors ended their four-month strike, which stopped actors promoting films.

Zegler was joined on the red carpet by co-stars Tom Blyth, Hunter Schafer and Josh Andres Rivera, actors who grew up watching the previous films and reading the books.

Speaking to BBC News about making the film, Zegler said: "I just wanted to do a good service to me and my 12-year-old self that loved the films. And it was just such a joy to get to do that."

"It's unbelievable," Schafer said. "I don't think 13-year-old me could have comprehended what I'm feeling now."

The fifth instalment of the movies is set 64 years before the first Hunger Games movie. It sees British actor Blyth play the young Coriolanus Snow aged 18, who goes on to become the tyrannical president of dystopian nation Panem.

West Side Story actress Zegler stars as the Games tribute Lucy Gray Baird.

Young fans queued and braved the rain to get a chance to meet the stars inside the premiere, with some waiting since the early hours.

Jenifer Bawden, who made costumes inspired by the film for the occasion, said: "We got here at 05:20 in the morning, it was a lot. We're from Bournemouth.

"The films are so well translated from the book to the film, so I'm very excited to see how they do it this time."

Describing the new film, director Francis Lawrence said: "It's a very different kind of movie, very much a Hunger Games movie, but a very different kind of story and different characters."

The film is scheduled to be released on 17 November.

The franchise is based on Suzanne Collins' best-selling dystopian books, set in a post-apocalypse America.