Fights at various Asda stores across the UK, which coincided with the chain’s Black Friday sales, have led to reports of people being injured and hospitalised.

"It was just a free-for-all. It was frightening," said one woman at the Westwood Centre in Belfast. "People were getting trailed to the ground. People were arguing with people. Two of my friends were injured."

A spokeswoman for Asda said: "This is the first time Black Friday has been done on this scale in stores across the UK and our customers were eager to take advantage of the great offers available to them. We planned for high demand and the half a million Black Friday products on offer to our customers have been selling quickly since 8am.

"Throughout the event, the safety of our customers is of vital importance and to ensure our stores can cope with the extra footfall we have full security teams in our stores and extra colleagues to help assist customers in the aisles."