A woman was taken to hospital in Belfast with a suspected broken arm after a stampede at a shopping centre over cut-price televisions.
There were also claims a heavily pregnant woman was pushed and shoved and pensioners were knocked to the ground by frantic shoppers battling to get their hands on Christmas deals at the Asda store in west Belfast.
A spokesman for the Northern Ireland Ambulance Service confirmed they were called to the Westwood Centre at about 8.30am and took a woman with an arm injury to the nearby Royal Victoria Hospital for treatment.
Chaotic scenes also erupted at a number of other Asda outlets across the region.
Hundreds of customers who had queued from the early hours of yesterday morning became irate after being told the limited number of discounted televisions and tablet computers had sold out within minutes.
Mayhem
One woman who was caught up in the mayhem in west Belfast described the scenes as frightening.
“It was just a free-for-all. It was frightening,” she said. “People were getting trailed to the ground. People were arguing with people. Two of my friends were injured.”
The woman claimed one friend was kicked in the stomach by a man who tried to grab a TV out of her hand.
“The other one, who is disabled, was actually kicked to the ground and trampled on and now has a broken arm and is waiting to hear if she is going to need surgery next week,” she said.
TVs were reduced from £179 to £99 as part of Asda’s “Black Friday” special offers that were advertised throughout the UK. People queued from about 1am for the deals, which started at 8am.
In the Westwood outlet there were just 24 of the 32-inch television sets on sale at the reduced prices.