South African shoppers smashed a store’s glass doors Friday as they crowded a shopping mall for pre-Christmas discounts.

Staff at a department store in Cape Town appeared to unlock the doors before an impatient mass of people streamed in, breaking the glass.

The scene of mayhem occurred at the Canal Walk Shopping Centre at a department store called Game, South Africa’s news24 reports.

Game advertised steep discounts on a wide range of items including trampolines, above-ground swimming pools, tools and televisions.



After foot traffic dropped off, South Africa’s Sunday Times newspaper filmed the damage up-close, revealing smashed-in glass partially detached from a bent frame.

A store’s glass doors were broken and alarm scanners were ripped up early this morning by #blackfriday deal seekers. It is understood that police were called in to control the crowd. #blackfridaydeals pic.twitter.com/4agpL7sSuR— Times LIVE (@TimesLIVE) November 24, 2017



Unlike the U.S., South Africa does not celebrate Thanksgiving and neither Thursday or Friday are public holidays. But the frenzied shopping and characteristic misbehavior have caught on nonetheless.

Google trends data indicate that only South Africa had higher search interest in the term “Black Friday” than the U.S. in the past year (Romania was third, Hungary fourth).

In Johannesburg, the nation’s largest city, there was a reported fight between shoppers and security guards. But there were also more mundane shopping scenes. One woman boasted of steep saving in the South African currency, Rands, on household items.

“Normally I buy eight toilet papers from around R200, but today I bought about 54 for R877,” a woman told South Africa’s Eyewitness News.