Shorta e claims s ark panic buying of toilet paper

HONG KONG: Panic buyers in Hong Kong have descended on supermarkets to snap up toilet paper after false online claims of shortages, prompting authorities to appeal for calm as the city’s seven million residents fret about a deadly coronavirus outbreak.

Videos obtained by AFP showed long queues of frantic shoppers packing trolleys with multiple packs of toilet rolls, with some arguments breaking out.

Rice and pasta have also become a popular target for panic buying.

Lois Strange, a 32-year-old Briton, who teaches at a city school, said she was greeted by chaotic scenes at her local supermarket on Wednesday morning.

“It was packed,“she told AFP. “Everyone was just grabbing as many toilet rolls as they could, packs and packs of them.”

Hong Kong’s government released a statement on Wednesday saying false rumours over shortages of goods were “leading to panic buying and even chaos”.

While Hong Kong has closed most of its land borders to mainland China, where the coronavirus outbreak began, freight services have not been affected, the government said.

“There are sufficient stocks of staple food including rice and pastas. There is no need for the public to worry,“the statement added.

RTHK News reported that toilet paper and rice at one supermarket in the district of Wan Chai, which had been fully restocked overnight, were cleared within 30 minutes of the store opening yesterday morning.