Almost 60,000 shoppers flocked to Southampton's WestQuay shopping centre yesterday on one of the biggest shopping days of the year.

Thousands of shoppers queued from 3.15am on Boxing Day to take advantage of the knock down prices, as retailers shifted their leftover 2012 stock.

Now bosses at the mall have revealed that footfall reached the 58,000-mark throughout the day, sending tills into meltdown.

The figures equalled last year's Boxing Day haul, while there was an increase of eight per cent in the number of vehicles using the mall's car parks.

And the clamour for post-Christmas bargains continued today, as hundreds queued outside the shopping centre ahead of the first day of the John Lewis sale.

Andy Collyer, General Manager at WestQuay, said he expected the number of shoppers to reach the 100,000 mark today.

It comes after 160,000 shoppers visited the centre last weekend.

Mr Collyer said: “Christmas is always a busy time for WestQuay, and yesterday proved no exception, with over 2,000 shoppers queuing for the Next sale when the store opened at 6am.

“That's around 500 people more than when the doors opened for the first day of the sale last year.

“We welcomed almost 58,000 shoppers to WestQuay yesterday, with almost 5,700 cars visiting the WestQuay car parks.

“Overall, Christmas trading at WestQuay has been positive and we are looking forward to continuing to welcome even more shoppers over the next few days.”