Black Friday Sales is a big day historically in America. An event following the Thanksgiving holiday, the Black Friday Sales tradition has been widely adopted amongst an increasing number of shops in the UK because of its popularity.
According to the Daily Mail, police had been called to at least 14 stores across Greater Manchester, London, Wales and Scotland because of the Black Friday Sales madness. It didn't stop there; the riot and madness were reportedly repeated in several other parts of the country, resulting in some stores to shut down.
The insanity included tugs of war over TVs. Shoppers were even seen lying on top of goods to stop their catch being snatched by other rival shoppers. Bargain hunters were also accused of behaving like animals as they were seen grappling over computers, coffee machines, hair-dryers and games consoles.
Most stores that called police and paramedics to deal with mayhem and injuries from the Black Friday Sales riots are Tesco and Asda stores.
Police were called in places such as Dundee, Glasgow, Cardiff and London, reports the BBC. Officers also reportedly attended to Tesco stores in Willesden and Surrey Quays.
Seven Tesco shops were responded to by police. In one scene, three men were arrested and a woman was hit by a falling television.
"Even on #BlackFriday shoving people to the floor so you can get £20 off a Coffee Maker is still an assault," tweeted Sgt Paul Marshall, a Metropolitan Police officer.
The BBC's Zoe Conway tweeted a picture of a woman on her knees with the words: "Customers knocked to the ground in the rush at Asda Wembley #BlackFriday."
A shopper named Jamie Hook was buying food at Tesco in Stretford Thursday night when he said "the screaming started" alerting the beginning of Black Friday Sales.
"I looked at the massive crowd to see people climbing over shelves and displays, staff running for cover, fights breaking out, stock flying through air, people breaking through carrying televisions - and this was before the sale had even started," he said.
"The lady on the till I was at was in tears, terrified of it all, but she was under orders to close her till to go and help crowd control," Hook added describing the chaos from the Black Friday Sales.
Another shopper, Ross Lewis, was at one of the stores participating in Black Friday Sales in Cardiff. He said people fought just to get hold of television sets.
"People were biting each other, pinching, punching, kicking - it was just absolutely horrendous, it was so, so bad," he said.
Chief Constable of Greater Manchester Police, Sir Peter Fahy, was clearly frustrated when he took to social media and tweeted about the amount of Black Friday Sales-related work being asked of his officers.
"Very disappointing that major stores did not learn lessons from last year - our officers have enough to do already" he tweeted.
Despite authorities having already interfered and arrested several individuals, fears over continued disorder from the Black Friday Sales are expected to continue over the weekend and into Monday as retailers roll out more offers for Cyber Monday.
As a result of disorder and violence from the Black Friday Sales, police chiefs appealed for calm.
According to the force, the Black Friday Sales issues were "totally predictable." They added that they are "disappointed" by shop security.
Meanwhile, Tesco said only a "small number" of their stores were affected by the Black Friday Sales violence.
Manchester police tweeted: "At least two people arrested at #BlackFriday sales events already this morning. Keep calm people!"
In London, police were also called by both Tesco staff and queuing shoppers while people gathered at the Glover Drive store in Edmonton.
The Metropolitan Police said officers worked with staff to "ensure that sale-goers were able to enter and exit the stores safe." They added that no one had been injured "as a result of the overcrowding" from the Black Friday Sales.
As police appealed for a peaceful continuation of the Black Friday Sales, a post on the Manchester force's Twitter feed read, "Keep calm, people!"
According to the force, it would not be deploying any more extra officers to stores involved in Black Friday Sales.
Visa predicts the highest daily figure in history with online sales expected to top £518million.
Retailers, especially supermarkets, fuelled the Black Friday Sales frenzy offering reductions of up to 70 per cent. As such, huge throngs of people were attracted when the stores opened their doors just after midnight.
This article is copyrighted by Travelers Today, the travel news leader
