SHOPS CRUSH

The centre, which opened on Thursday, became so busy that bosses were forced to launch crowd control measures.

And WestQuay bosses expect similar crowd numbers to continue right up until Christmas; however, crowds were fewer yesterday, at 60,000.

On Saturday security staff had to restrict the number of visitors into the food terrace and temporarily shut one of the centre's main entrance halls. The escalator was also shut down because of the numbers as well as an accident in which several shoppers fell on top of one woman who had tripped over. By late afternoon there were public announcements asking people to leave if they had finished shopping.

WestQuay asset manager Vanessa Forester said: "There were many more shoppers here than we were expecting and I am very proud of the way our team handled the situation.''

She added: "Our public safety officers are trained in crowd control and the mall is a place where we are totally in control of these issues.''

But one shopper told the Echo: "It was crazy. It was more like being in a football crowd than in a shopping centre."

Southampton City Council deputy leader John Arnold said WestQuay developers Hammerson expected the shopping frenzy to continue to Christmas. He welcomed the huge interest that WestQuay attracted and said it was a sign that people were retur-ning to Southampton.

"The whole objective of it is to attract people into Southampton after years of them not coming into the city," he said. "These people will obviously go to WestQuay first, but then start to discover the rest of the city centre."

Mr Arnold also played down safety fears at the centre. He said: "The whole of the centre has been very well designed. The remarkable thing is that you can get 150,000 people in there and, without underestimating it, the only thing that happened was the problem on the escalator."

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