Two-hour bank holiday traffic jam … in an Ikea car park!

hUNDREDS of unhappy ikea customers were trapped for more than two hours in a gridlocked multi- storey car park yesterday.

traffic entering and leaving ikea’s Reading superstore was brought to a standstill after the branch closed the first level of its 1,000-space car park on one of the busiest days of the year.

Furious motorists joked they should start building their furniture as they waited to leave following their bank holiday shopping spree.

Debora hage, 47, and her 69-year- old mother spent nearly 90 minutes trying to get out of the four-storey car park.

‘We only went in to buy some lampshades and a light – but when we got back to the car park at 12.30pm it was utter chaos,’ she said. ‘All of the traffic going in and out was completely gridlocked.

‘We were parked on Level 2 but it took us an hour and 25 minutes to escape – at one point it took 35 minutes for us to move four car park spaces. By the time we finally got out cars were queuing up the ramp of the M4 to get into ikea.’

helen Dean posted on twitter: ‘Might as well start making my ikea furniture in the car park because of the broken traffic.’

it is not the first time the Reading store has seen traffic chaos. Customers were trapped for three hours soon after it opened in July 2016.

With the car park’s first level to be closed for the rest of the month due to an ‘operational issue’, ikea staff urged customers to travel by public transport or shop online.