Questions are being raised following the trampling of three shoppers in riots on the final day of opening of Poundworld at Sheffield Heeley Retail Park.

As feral locals stripped the shelves of tacky plastic goods at 70 per cent off, it is thought the victims may have been knocked over as they bent down to pick up dropped items such as a three pack of batteries with a collective life of half an hour or a solar garden ornament in the shape of a grinning frog sitting on a toadstool.

Many customers reported a total saving of up to £5 after queuing for 90 minutes at the single open till.

Andrew White, a keen bargainologist said “My mobile phone charger lead keeps fraying so I have bought eight replacements so I will never run out. Mind you, it’s pretty unlikely my next phone will have the same socket, so I may not need five or six of them. Still, they were only 39p each. Though I did have to scramble over a corpse to get at them.”

His friend Nick Hodgson was initially delighted to have bought 14 packs of Revels at half price, despite the fact he can’t abide the orange creams. Or the coffee ones. And the raisins.

But once the buying frenzy wore off he admitted “On reflection I’d have been better just buying a big bag of Maltesers at Lidl. And I wouldn’t have stamped on that guy’s head.”

Shop manager, Rick Wilson said “Oh my God, I can’t believe it. There’s no way I could have foreseen, anticipated or prophesied a riot.”