VIDEO gamers were racing yesterday to get their hands on scarce copies of “Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas,” the latest, highly anticipated addition to the popular videogame franchise, which hit stores yesterday.

“It was a mad rush,” says Sal Cataldo, store manager of EB Games in the Manhattan Mall. “I would say it was a week-before-Christmas atmosphere.”

Cataldo, who still had a few copies left by press time, reports that half of his customers yesterday were looking for the game.

“We’ve gotten people calling on the phone, saying, ‘I’ll be there in 10 minutes to pick it up,’ rushing over to get the game like it was life or death.

“One customer decided to return a pair of shoes, to get money to buy the game.”

Other people around the city weren’t so lucky.

The EB Games on 14th Street had sold all of its 128 copies in the morning and logged 526 pre-orders by afternoon. The Game Stop sold all of its copies in an hour and isn’t expecting another shipment until the weekend.

Since the five-game series debuted in 1998, “Grand Theft Auto” has sold 32 million games. Fans snapped up 13 million copies of the most recent title, 2002’s “Grand Theft Auto: Vice City,” making it one of the best-selling games of the last 10 years.

The mature-rated games continue to be controversial because of their violent content: Players can kill cops, commit drive-by shootings, run over hookers and recruit gang members – all while carjacking and causing mayhem.