LONDON - Actor Rupert Grint, who plays Ron Weasley in the Harry Potter films, spoke Monday of his fears after contracting swine flu, saying he initially thought he might die.

Grint described contracting the A(H1N1) virus, which has spread around the world, as 'quite scary' but he recovered after spending a few days in bed.

'It was quite scary when I first found out I had swine flu,' he said at a press conference with other Potter actors including Emma Watson in London.

'I thought "Am I going to die?" But it was just like any other flu really.'

'I had a sore throat and I went to bed for a few days.'

Grint was speaking ahead of the world premiere in London on Tuesday of 'Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince", the sixth installment of the phenomenally successful Harry Potter films.

The 20-year-old's publicist confirmed on Saturday that he had suffered from the virus, taking several days off filming the next movie in the blockbuster series, 'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.'

Four people have died in Britain of swine flu, and the country has Europe's highest number of reported cases with nearly 7,500.

The government has warned that figure could rise to over 100,000 new cases a day by the end of August.