Young teens waiting for the British boy band One Direction (top) at a morning television appearance in Sydney.

Thousands of hysterical teenage girls mobbed a central Sydney television studio yesterday for a glimpse of British-Irish boy band One Direction, with some sleeping on the streets overnight to be first in.

I’ll do anything to see them, I’d even get tasered for this. I don’t care, I just have to see them

The five-member outfit, whose talents were discovered on British television programme The X Factor, have drawn wild crowds since touching down in Sydney for their first Australian tour.

Devoted fans have followed their every movement, tailing their black security vans across Sydney for press engagements in the hope of catching a glimpse of their idols, aged between 18 and 21.

Hundreds of fans braved an overnight cold snap to camp in the city’s central Martin Place plaza for front-row positions outside the windows of the Seven television network where the band was due to appear.

The crowd swelled to thousands through the morning, with girls sprinting from buses and train stations across town. Security fences were erected to keep fans at a safe distance and a row of police officers stood with linked arms to hold the screaming mass at bay.

“I feel so sick, I was like a metre from them,” Felicity Powell, 16, told the Daily Telegraph.

Another fan was prepared to take a stun gun for her idols, declaring: “I’ll do anything to see them, I’d even get tasered for this. I don’t care, I just have to see them.”

Bemused office workers stopped to watch the colourful teenaged crowd, clad in a mix of pyjamas and homemade fan T-shirts. Some waved signs proclaiming “Australia Loves 1D” and asking the band to marry them.

Several girls were so overcome with excitement when the group arrived on set that they fainted and needed to be lifted out of the crowd for first-aid treatment, according to media reports.

“This is mental, it’s absolutely incredible and we can’t believe it,” band member Liam Payne said.

One Direction’s first album made its debut at No. 1 on the US charts last month − a feat never before achieved by a British band.