FURIOUS shoppers were trapped in a major city shopping centre for hours, forcing many to abandon their cars in frustration.
Drivers were stuck in queues attempting to get out of Trafford Retail Park in Greater Manchester in chaotic scenes described as “worse than Christmas“.
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Footage showed vehicles snaking around the congested car park, with some families ditching their cars and heading for fast food – only to later return and find themselves still unable to leave.
One mum said the ordeal was so bad she would never return to the shopping centre in Urmston.
Clare Jemison, who had visited Sports Direct in the mall with her ten-year-old daughter who has ADHD, described the situation yesterday as “horrendous”.
She said not only was the car park packed but the nearby Barton Road was also congested in both directions along an M60 motorway slip road.
She told the Manchester Evening News: “Nothing was moving at all – some people even abandoned their cars there and went back later on.
“People were getting out of their cars and walking to KFC or McDonald’s for food, coming back and their cars still hadn’t moved.
“It took us two hours to get out. It was ridiculous and something needs to be done about it.
“It was absolutely horrendous and I won’t be going back – it was worse than at Christmas, absolutely crazy.”
An unhappy shopper posted on Facebook: “It was horrific. I ended up walking home to get my two-year-old to nap. Three young kids in the car is a killer.”
Another complained about taking three-and-a-half hours “to do 10 minutes shopping”, adding: “Will be a long time before I go back there again.”
And Simon Doyle took to Twitter to ask Greater Manchester Police whether they could do anything to “sort out this absolute nightmare of a gridlock”.
Trafford Retail Centre has been asked for comment by The Sun Online.
The shopping centre’s car park previously struggled to cope with the number of post-Christmas shoppers even when the region was under Tier 3 lockdown restrictions during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The mall also hit the headlines last November when a brawl broke out and was filmed in a branch of restaurant chain Nando’s.
Also last year a mum was devastated when her car was stolen from Trafford Retail Park and security told her “it happens all the time”.
A car park elsewhere in Manchester was recently revealed to be the most expensive in the UK, followed by others in London, Brighton and Newcastle.
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