CHAOTIC crowds, scuffles, shoving and massive queues – welcome to Black Friday in Bournemouth and Poole.

Thousands of eager shoppers keen to grab a bargain turned out in the early hours of the morning to take their place in long lines outside shops and supermarkets.

Footage of shoppers at the Tesco store on Castle Lane hunting captured by Danielle Painting

More than 18,000 cars were expected to turn up at Castlepoint Shopping Centre as shoppers took advantage of the Black Friday cut-price sales.

And queues lasted for hours at the Bournemouth shopping centre as dedicated bargain-hunters got into the spirit of the American tradition.

This year, many more big-name retailers have been getting on board the Black Friday phenomenon, such as Asda, M&S, Sainsbury’s, Topshop and Game.

Shoppers at Castlepoint on Friday morning 

Traditionally Black Friday is the big sales day which follows the Thanksgiving holiday.

But now, more and more shops in the UK are adopting the day as a way of boosting the pre-Christmas sales period.

See how Black Friday unfolded across Bournemouth in our rolling coverage here

Peter Matthews, manager of Castlepoint Shopping Centre said the biggest activity was seen at Game where shoppers queued for more than three hours to get their hands on a bargain.

“The queue was from Game to Marks and Spencer; an awful long queue and remained there until 3am despite them opening at midnight”, he said.

“They have done phenomenal business selling consoles and games.

“The other store, which would have done really well, is Asda.

“People were queuing from 6.30am there. It’s all been very orderly here. We haven’t seen a repeat of the chaotic scenes elsewhere in the country. There are so many bargains and lots of people. This is all about the deals. Not Christmas.

“It’s come just after pay day and after this people will start to think about Christmas.”

He added: “It will be a poor year for retailers I think. We’ve not had the autumn weather, which doesn’t make people feel Christmassy. This year’s Black Friday is much bigger than last year. Part of it reflects how last year, the deals were all about electrical goods.

“This year, other retailers selling clothes and other goods have jumped on it and people who bagged a bargain are absolutely chuffed to bits about it.

“Black Friday is here to stay.”

'People were screaming, pushing and shoving each other' 

“When it hit midnight, people started screaming and pushing and shoving each other.”

That was the scene at Tesco Extra in Castle Lane as shoppers intent on snapping up a bargain turned out to ensure they grabbed a deal.

Josh Burridge, 23, who visited the store said: “We arrived around 11.55pm and the car park was completely full. The police were there dealing with what looked like some kind of accident in the car park, probably because everyone was looking for spaces.

"When we got inside it was absolute mayhem, there were about 500 people in the foyer area where some of the bargains had been laid out and then when it hit midnight people started screaming and pushing and shoving each other.

"A number of people were sitting on big 50 inch TVs to claim them and other people were trying to push them off. It was a free for all. I've never seen anything like it. It was incredible."

Footage of the queues, captured by Danielle Painting, shows a packed crowd of people in the foyer, carrying televisions on their head and pushing past people trying to manoeuvre trollies among the mayhem.

This was repeated at Tesco at Fleets Corner and Tower Park, where one reader tweeted to say she had witnessed fights despite a two in, two out policy at the food store.

Bill Jackson, who was at Castlepoint, captured a picture of some queues outside Game around 10.30pm as people waited for the store to open at midnight.

He also said they ran out of Xbox One and PS4 bundles within an hour.

Websites also suffered due to the weight of demand, with Tesco experiencing problems nationwide, and more locally, Richmond Classics said they were having trouble due to the amount of people trying to access their site.