Panic at the sales
Oxford St crowds smash window to flee stampede Gun police swoop at mall to break up fighting gangs
THE Boxing Day sales descended into chaos yesterday as panic broke out at two packed shopping destinations.
At least one person was left covered in blood as hundreds fled a House of Fraser store – falsely believing they had heard gunfire.
Meanwhile one of the country’s biggest shopping centres was partially closed after gangs of youths clashed in front of horrified bargain hunters.
Some customers at the House of Fraser on London’s Oxford Street desperately smashed a window to escape, and a woman was injured in the stampede. Armed police rushed to the scene shortly before 5pm.
A store employee said there was a ‘commotion’ at one end of the shop which caused customers to panic.
She said: ‘A fire alarm went off and people started running. A group decided to smash the window to get out. I saw a woman in a wheelchair and her face was covered in blood.’
The police said the woman’s injuries were ‘non-life threatening’ and that there was nothing to indicate that ‘any criminal offences have occurred’.
In a separate incident, part of the Westfield shopping centre in Stratford, East London, was closed off after a brawl among teenagers.
Police were called just after 2.30pm, when the centre was packed with dedicated shoppers. A man was arrested for having an offensive weapon.
One woman wrote on Twitter: ‘Not entirely sure whether it was a prank or gang fight but all I know is [it] was the most terrifying experience of my life.
‘All I saw was a stampede of screaming people coming towards me and poor kids being trampled on.’
Armed police broke up the clashes and held teenagers back as shoppers fled. A Westfield spokesman said that the ‘minor disturbance’ had been ‘resolved’ and insisted that the centre had not been evacuated and was trading as normal last night.
Despite the chaos, shoppers across the country were on track to spend a record £4.3billion yesterday – with some even queuing up on Christmas night to bag bargains. International customers – encouraged by the weaker pound and cheap flights – were also boosting sales.
However, footfall in High Streets and shopping centres across the UK yesterday was reported to be lower than last year, as shoppers moved online.
Monitoring service Springboard said footfall was down 4 per cent on the hours until noon compared with last year, while they predicted a rise of more than 6.2 per cent in online sales. Diane Wehrle, insights director at the group, said: ‘We did anticipate a drop in footfall on Boxing Day, but the scale of the drop is greater than expected.’
Meanwhile a record- breaking £ 895million was spent online on Christmas Day itself – up 11 per cent on last year. Many stores then saw shoppers yesterday queuing morning. ahead Hundreds of opening of people lined up outside Next at Festival Park in Stoke from 2.30am. More than 300 people queued at a Next in Bristol from 5am.
Jace Tyrrell – chief of the New West End Company, which represents businesses around London’s Oxford Street – said: ‘We predict a high number of international visitors will take advantage of currency fluctuations and lowcost flights to come to the West End, spending £62million this week.’
‘Face covered in blood’