Queues for last glimpse of Terracotta Army

The queue stretches the length of the street and snakes round the corner — but it's not for the latest blockbuster.

These people are waiting for tickets to see the Terracotta Army exhibition at the British Museum, which opened more than six months ago and closes at the end of the week.

Even though the museum introduced late-night opening for the First Emperor exhibition at the start of this year, it has long been a sell-out.

However, 500 tickets are held back for sale on each day — 700 at weekends — allowing plenty of people who have not booked in advance to get in before it closes on Sunday. For the past few months queues have been forming at about 7.30am almost every day, with some enthusiasts arriving as early as 5.20am.

The exhibition, in the Round Reading Room, features 20 lifesize figures from the burial site of Qin Shihuang at Xi'an.

With 850,000 people expected to have seen it by the time it closes, the First Emperor is one of the most popular shows in the history of the British Museum.

It is beaten only by the 1.7 million visitors who queued for hours to see the 1972 Tutankhamen exhibition.