ANN/THE STRAITS TIMES – Chaos broke out at a Malaysian store on Saturday after hundreds of shoppers swarmed the premises to take advantage of its promotional sale, which offered apparel for as low as MYR1.
The shop, located in Selangor’s state capital of Shah Alam, had offered its first 100 customers the opportunity to buy clothes at MYR1 as part of its Hari Raya Aidilfitri sales.
The next 50 customers will be able to get free kurta shirts, according to the Malaysian media. Prizes such as mobile phones were also up for grabs.
However, the situation got out of control when more than 500 people swarmed the shop, leading to pushing, shoving and shouting.
Videos of the rowdy scenes went viral on social media.
Some showed people shouting outside the shop, while others depicted scenes of chaos inside, with people grabbing as many items as they could.
Security guards were seen struggling to maintain public order. The New Straits Times reported that one guard was injured and was carried away by a colleague.
Shah Alam District Police Chief Mohd Iqbal Ibrahim said that the police received a complaint about the incident at 10.30am on Saturday.
He said the store – which he did not name – agreed to stop operations at 11.45am due to safety concerns, as the shop’s employees could not contain the crowd.
Mohd Iqbal advised the public not to be “too emotional” over such promotions.
“At the same time, business owners must be considerate and avoid creating promotions that could confuse the public to avoid similar situations from repeating,” he said.
On social media, netizens slammed the shop for its poor organisation.
“It could easily cause crowd crushes, honestly it is so scary to see the videos. The management could’ve better prepared,” tweeted Soyah.
Zal on TikTok said the promotion sounded “too good to be true” as clothes can be sold for as low as MYR5 at a thrift store.
Another commentator added on TikTok: “I rather wear last year’s Raya clothes.”
