One Direction have announced plans for a stadium world tour in 2014, including a date in Scotland.

The chart-toppers released the first details of their Where We Are Tour at London's Wembley Stadium, which is due to host the group for one of five dates in the UK and Ireland.

Band member Harry Styles said: "It feels crazy to be announcing this in the first place - every time we walk into one of these places (Wembley), we think it's absolutely huge.

"The concept of doing a gig in a place like Wembley is incredible. We're very excited."

The announcement brings to an end intense speculation on the internet, after the British-based boy band hinted at "one big announcement" on their official Twitter page, which included a link to an online countdown to today's unveiling.

In a tweet to fans last night, the band cryptically wrote: "Tomorrow is the BIG DAY. Get ready for an extremely exciting announcement... http://onebigannouncement.com 1DHQ x #1BIGANNOUNCEMENTTOMORROW"

Meanwhile, band member Niall Horan added on his official page this morning: "En route to make the announcement! Can't wait! Literally soo excited!"

The first leg of the tour will see the What Makes You Beautiful singers visit Latin America, opening in Colombia on April 25.

They will play five dates in the UK and Ireland - Dublin's Croke Park on May 24, Sunderland's Stadium of Light on May 28 and the Etihad Stadium in Manchester on May 31, before heading to Scotland for a gig at Murrayfield in Edinburgh on June 3 and returning to the venue of today's press conference, Wembley, on June 7.

Tickets for the UK and Ireland dates will go on sale on May 25.

The announcement sparked a surge of excitement online.

A predictable social media frenzy saw the subject trending on Twitter where the news prompted evident delight among Styles's 12.9 million followers.

The One Direction website was apparently unable to cope with the spike in traffic in the wake of the announcement.

A message told its visitors: "We're updating stuff... Back soon, shouldn't be more than 30 mins."

Styles later hinted that the band may play in other destinations, beyond those announced this morning.

"We cannot believe we're announcing a tour in 2014. Latin America, Uk, ireland.. Rest of the world, keep your ears open," he wrote.

One Direction shot to fame after coming third in the 2010 series of the X Factor, where they lost out to singer-songwriter Matt Cardle.

But the five-piece have gone on to eclipse the eventual winner, enjoying a string of top 10 singles, recording two hit albums and are now about to release their first film, 1D3D.

The band - who said they are all big football fans - stressed that further shows on the world tour would be announced at a later date.

Horan said: "We're incredibly excited to announce we're doing a worldwide stadium tour in 2014.

"We're three years into it (being a band), so stepping out to an audience of 65,000 a night is incredible."

The announcement comes in the middle of the band's current tour, which will see them play in Switzerland tonight and Germany tomorrow.

Asked about what fans - known as Directioners - can expect next year, Styles said: "It's important that the fans know it's not the same tour going around again in stadiums.

"We want to make the stage bigger, with new songs. It's going to be a completely different tour and a lot of fun."

Fellow band members Zayn Malik, Liam Payne and Louis Tomlinson were also present for the announcement today, visibly excited about the prospect of playing in some of the world's greatest stadiums.

The band also confirmed plans for a new album, following last year's Take Me Home, to be released later this year.

They described the sound as "rockier" and "edgy".

Payne said: "It (the sound) kind of grows as we grow."

He added: "We want to do this as long as we can. We can't believe this is happening all at once, but we're just going to go with it.

"I'm looking around Wembley thinking 'It's huge - how are we going to sell out this place?'."

The tour was the subject of more than a million Twitter postings within 80 minutes of the band's announcement, the micro-blogging site said.

Within half an hour, the topic occupied seven of the site's top 10 worldwide trends.

By comparison, it took four hours for tweets relating to Baroness Thatcher's death to hit the one million mark.

However, the news failed to stir the same reaction as Sir Alex Ferguson's retirement, which sparked 1.3 million Twitter postings within an hour.