LONDON • Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling said on Monday she has received a flood of death threats, as she slammed three transgender rights activists who posted her home address on Twitter.

Rowling thanked the police in Scotland for their support after the activists tweeted a photograph of them standing outside the writer's home in Edinburgh, with the address visible, last Friday.

Rowling said that she and other women who have spoken out on gender issues have faced "campaigns of intimidation", stalking and harassment, but vowed she would not be silenced.

The 56-year-old writer said she has received "so many death threats I could paper the house with them", and that "families have been put into a state of fear and distress" by the activists.

"Perhaps the best way to prove your movement isn't a threat to women, is to stop stalking, harassing and threatening us."

A Police Scotland spokesman said the force was "aware of this incident" and inquiries were "ongoing".

All three activists had shut down their Twitter accounts by Monday.

Rowling has been involved in a simmering row with the transgender community.

The dispute began about two years ago when she tweeted against the use of the phrase "people who menstruate", rather than "women".

The message caused a rift with some stars of the Harry Potter movies (2001 to 2011), including lead actor Daniel Radcliffe, who tweeted an apology on her behalf.

"Transgender women are women," Radcliffe wrote in a post.

In her posts on Monday, Rowling said she was "appalled" to hear from women who had spoken out on transgender issues, including those with no public profile, and suffered abuse including threats of rape.

"None of these women is protected in the way I am," she said, attacking the "socio-political concept of gender identity" as opposed to biological sex.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE