Shoppers in Currys chaos

Bargain hunters looking to beat the credit crunch caused chaos today, closing a motorway junction as they converged in their thousands on a new store.

Chaos erupted on roads around Wednesbury this morning as people headed to the new Currys Megastore in Axletree Way.

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The Highways Agency was even forced to shut the northbound exit slip road of the M6 at Junction 9 for two hours from 7.15am.

Many shoppers began queueing last night to get their hands on £200 sat navs for as little as £19.99. Drivers forced to abandon their vehicles nearby as the car parks filled up this morning arrived to find more than 3,000 people waiting outside the store, which opened at 6.30am.

Some shoppers lucky enough to get inside were forced to go home empty-handed because a lorry load of hundreds of televisions got stuck on the motorway.

Store manager Jon Fisher said: "It's absolutely crazy. I can't believe so many people have come. We are now telling people that they will get a free delivery service for anyone who has already paid for a TV which is on this lorry."

Northbound motorway traffic queued back for more than seven miles on the M5 from where it joins the M6 at Wednesbury back to Junction 3 at Halesowen. There were also tailbacks on the northbound M6 stretching for seven miles from Junction 9 to Junction 6 at Birmingham and southbound as far back as Junction 11 for Cannock. The mayhem also meant huge queues built up on surrounding roads.

Police were called to reports of disorder in the queue at the store and had to set up crowd control measures. Witnesses said some people were complaining of being crushed and fights had broken out.

West Midlands Police spokeswoman Catherine Preece said: "Due to around 2,500 to 3,000 people gathering in the area officers put crowd control measures in place."

A 75-year-old woman from Wolverhampton who had been in the queue since 3am had to be taken to New Cross Hospital at 8.30am after fainting outside the store. First in the queue were West Bromwich twins Derek and Dean Johnson aged 35.

The pair of plumbers started queueing at around 8.30 last night. Derek said: "We've got a television each, two sat navs, a Playstation 3 and a printer."