2:00pm Monday 15th March 2010
A SHOPPER caught in the scuffle to get free vouchers at a store opening says she was “terrified” during her ordeal.
Nicola Davis, 31, of Coronation Avenue, Colchester, has been left with a bruised lip and ribs and a sprained ankle after queuing with her friends at the opening of the new H&M store in Colchester on Thursday morning.
Ms Davis had to be taken into a back room of the store after she had a panic attack while getting caught in the stampede.
She said: “Me and my friends were getting pushed and pulled all over the place.
“My friend got handed a voucher by a shop assistant and it was immediately snatched out of her hand. She was given another one, but she was pushed to the ground and the voucher got taken off her.
“I got punched in my head, elbowed in the mouth and pushed to the ground. I was terrified and in so much pain.
“It was just so badly organised. They should have known something like that would happen.
“I will never do anything like that again.”
The clothes store was celebrating the opening by giving out free vouchers, worth from £5 to £50, to the first 100 customers to enter the store.
A store spokesman said while there had been some pushing and shoving when the doors were initally opened, this had soon been controlled.
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