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Brawl Breaks Out In Australian Supermarket As Shoppers Panic-Buy Due To Coronavirus Outbreak

Brawl Breaks Out In Australian Supermarket As Shoppers Panic-Buy Due To Coronavirus Outbreak

Three women were filmed fighting over packs of toilet paper in one supermarket

Claire Reid

Claire Reid

A video showing three women violently scrapping over toilet paper in an Australian supermarket has gone viral. You can watch it below:

As the Covid-19 coronavirus outbreak spreads, a number of people across the globe have been out panic-buying items such as tinned food, toilet paper and hand sanitiser, which has seemingly led to a brawl breaking out in Woolworth in Chullora, west Sydney.

In a clip filmed by an onlooker, which has been posted on Twitter, the three women can be heard screaming and shouting at each other before a staff member gets involved.

It appears as though one woman took a packet of toilet rolls from the other two women, prompting a fight to break out.

One woman can be heard saying: "I just want one pack."

However, the second woman, who appears to have a full trolley of toilet rolls, responded: "No, not one pack."

Twitter

At this point, a male member of staff approached the women and said: "I need everyone to back off right now. You need to get off this trolley."

A spokesperson from Woolworths told 7 News: "We can confirm an incident involving customers at our Chullora store in Sydney earlier today.

"We will not tolerate violence of any kind from our customers in our stores and we are working with Police who are investigating the matter."

Police in the area confirmed to 7 News they had been called out to the store following reports of a 49-year-old woman being assaulted, but said no arrests had been made.

Panic-buying has become such an issue in Australia that earlier this week the head of Ritchies Supa IGA, the largest independent supermarket chain in Australia, said restrictions might have to be put in place.

Fred Harrison urged shoppers to only buy what they needed in the short-term or else supplies could run low.

This Aldi at Mudgeeraba, Australia has been ransacked of toilet paper.
PA

He told G2B: "We started to see an increase last Thursday and it escalated quickly over the weekend and into this week.

"The panic really isn't needed because there is adequate stock supply in Australia, but if customers start buying four or five months-worth of supplies then that will put a strain on certain companies."

He added that restrictions might be necessary if people carry on as they have been, explaining: "If [suppliers] indicated we needed to control stock, something like that would make good sense.

"We have to talk to suppliers first and be guided by their stock supply. We are starting to have those discussions with suppliers to see what their situation is."

Featured Image Credit: Twitter

Topics: Coronavirus, Australia