WATCH | Black Friday: Midnight madness as EL store closes door on surging crowd

Chaos and strange scenes marked the start of Black Friday in East London with crazed shoppers pushing their way into at least one store amid a strong police presence.

At Game in Vincent Park, doors opened at midnight. The Dispatch witnessed about 1,000 excited and anxious shoppers pushing and shoving when the doors, which had been opened, were closed to try and control the frenzy.

People panicked and others kept coming forward. For one tense minute, the crowd finally came to a standstill and then the doors opened and shoppers made a run for it, grabbing trolleys.

They raced around the store to get TV sets and others items,  such as cooler boxes and groceries. Some argued, saying: “That is mine!” while others tried to jump the queue but were reprimanded sharply by other customers to get back in line.

At Shoprite in Amalinda at 7.30am, the aisles were packed with people shoving trolleys and lines at the 15 tills which each had 30-strong queues. .

Some shoppers said they were able to get their Christmas goodies, but others said the items they desired had been cleaned out already.

CTM in Amalinda  was only half-full and people seemed to be enjoying the shopping experience.

Parking at Shoprite was full to capacity.

 At 8am, the N2 off-ramp to Beacon  Bay where Retail Park was a shopping magnet, was backed up by a kilometre. Bonza Bay Road was bumper-to-bumper and a traffic officer on point duty at the entrance to Retail Park was working frantically to keep motorists moving along.