Media Markt sale results in comic and tragic scenes in Łódź

The company had been advertising its New Year sale for a week. The sale started on Thursday midnight, but by 10 p.m. the local connecting roads were already blocked with bargain hunters. Around 6,000 stormed the front door of the M1 retail center, with another 3,000 besieging the Łódź Gallery in the city center. Security officers who were trying to control the crowd were immediately overwhelmed by people trying to force open the shop doors, and so had to call the police for assistance. Shortly after midnight the crowd's fury rose as cash registers broke down. People started smashing everything - jumping on DVDs, breaking TV sets and computers, while another frustrated customer threw a digital camera on the floor. The police started beating the customers to bring them under control. More than ten ambulances were needed to ferry the injured away, including a 13-year old boy with a broken thigh and a policeman with crushed genitals. (Gazeta Wyborcza, January 10-11; p. 1) A.Z.