Adele’s widely anticipated comeback album 25, due to be released on Friday, has reportedly been leaked online in a serious security breach.

The Sun newspaper is reporting that the London-based store Juno Records posted two-minute snippets of the 11 songs on their sales website two days early.

The album stream was soon removed but will throw a cloud over the carefully planned international launch of the album, of which Adele has been fiercely protective..

According to The Sun, the album may have been leaked out of the US department store chain Target.

A fan on Twitter called @HausofFrancis posted a picture of the album cover and wrote: “Just copped that new Adele album at Target. Retweet if you want me to leak it”.

After being threatened with legal action by Adele’s record label XL, she removed the tweet.

However, a music industry source told the newspaper: “This throws the most carefully planned album campaign in years into crisis.

“Everything had been built up around a massive surprise on Friday, when the album was going to be released in every territory around the world.”

Adele recently released the single Hello from 25, which had the largest opening week sales in three years.

Source: The Australian