Stampede in Magnit shopping centre: Crowd of shoppers almost fractured shop-windows

Today at 10 a.m. a shop of permanent sales Galamart was opened in Magnit shopping centre in Dzerzhynsky prospect.

The event had not been publicized very much, and many people learned about it only from booklets handed out in the shopping centre. And even despite that a huge crowd of Minsk dwellers gathered to buy cheap goods. As soon as the doors of the shop were opened, people rushed inside, as a result there was a stampede, and even guards could not prevent that.

The detailed account of the events was given to onliner.by by an eyewitness Alyaksei:

- A vast crowd gathered for the opening, they gathered near glass shop-windows. When people were allowed to enter the shop, madness started: roaring, shouting, people were literally lying on the glass doors. Guards were trying to bring the crowd to senses, to make them move backwards, but in vain. The guards were so nervous that they uttered foul words, shouting: “People, you are not beasts!” Someone from the crowd was taken bad, people asked to call in an ambulance.

All this frenzy which started at 10 a.m., subsided only at the noon, but a long queue was still waiting for a chance to enter the shop. People are let inside in groups of 10. It was really impressive, people were jolting in a bull rage, like a flock, it reminded the stampede in the underground walkway in Nyamiha metro station.

Galamart is a place of permanent sales. The first shop of the Russian network in Minsk, in Bonus shopping centre, has been working since 2013. Their format is selling a huge number of necessary household articles: goods for a house or a summer cottage, household supplies, dishware, equipment, haberdashery, car accessories and many other things.