THOUSANDS of people descended on Southampton this morning for the grand opening of the city's new Ikea store.

There was an air of excitement as a jazz band struck up and a safety barrier that had been placed outside was removed to allow waiting customers inside.

Dressed in their iconic blue and yellow uniforms, dozens of staff lined the entrance of the grand store on West Quay Road to welcome its first visitors through the doors.

The store's first customer was Ben Moore, 17, from Fareham, who had waited since 10pm last night to get his hands on a £1,000 voucher to spend inside.

The teenager had been queuing since 10pm last night.

The 17-year-old said: “I’m a bit of a crazy person and I really wanted to be the first person in the queue for Ikea.

See photos from the grand opening - click here

"It’s a big historic thing for Southampton which I wanted to be part of.

“I really like Ikea because it’s a funky store and good fun.”

Ben, of Butser Walk, Fareham, added: “It was a very very coldnight but a good laugh.

"I was here at 10pm last night and some others joined me about 1am. We had lots of coffee and our big sleeping bags to keep warm – it was worth it.”

Bosses at the furniture giant this morning said queues were in to the thousands, snaking down the escalators and into the 900 space car park.

The usual ribbon-cutting ceremony was to be ditched for the mayor and store manager sawing a log in half – a Swedish tradition.

Entertainment was being provided alongside goodies for the first bunch of shoppers.

Children wearing blue and yellow clothes were also being given surprise gifts.

Marketing manager Rob Cooper said that he was not expecting any of the scenes that greeted the midnight opening of Ikea’s Edmonton store in north London in 2005, as there were no cut-price offers to provoke “riots”.

“We are really proud of the store and want Southampton to be really proud of it too,” he said.

The first four days of opening are being classed as a “special event” by the council and the police, who will be on patrol around the store and will monitoring traffic. Additional council staff have been brought in to deal with traffic.

To prevent the feared traffic chaos, council chiefs have issued advice to residents to check travel bulletins and avoid the area.

A leaked council memo warned that there are likely to be “very severe delays” along the West Quay Road for six weeks as a result of the store opening.

No additional roads have been built, although the junctions of Southern Road and Harbour Parade have been widened and the council has suspended roadworks.

Ikea has estimated that its £80m store – its 18th in the country – will attract two million customers a year and generate an annual turnover of £55m.

The store has already created nearly 500 jobs and will help to halt Southampton’s faltering retail ranking by bring millions into the city economy. However, smaller neighbouring shopping centres fear that they could lose about £30m.