Christmas shoppers visiting Britain's fourth largest shopping centre found themselves in traffic hell yesterday as the sheer number of vehicles left them stranded in queues for up to six hours.

Police had to be called to Bluewater, Kent, after a last-minute gift rush brought 240 acres of car parking space to a complete standstill.

Drivers were seen crying behind their wheels as a massive influx of seasonal shoppers caused the roads in and out of the huge mall to bottleneck, locking hundreds of families in their cars for hours on end.

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Christmas shoppers visiting Britain's fourth largest shopping centre, Bluewater, found themselves in traffic hell yesterday as the sheer number of vehicles left them stranded in queues for up to six hours

Drivers were seen crying behind their wheels as a massive influx of seasonal shoppers caused the roads in and out of the huge mall to bottleneck, locking hundreds of families in their cars for hours on end

Scores gave up and abandoned their vehicles in favour of returning back inside the centre to eat or watch films in the hope the sea of traffic eventually diluted

Scores gave up and abandoned their vehicles in favour of returning back inside the centre to eat or watch films in the hope the sea of traffic eventually diluted.

However, witnesses claim that caused even more grief for those stuck behind them - leading to angry exchanges between fed-up motorists.

The chaos started at around 4pm and continued well into the evening.

Desperate to disperse the mammoth tailbacks, shopping centre staff closed exit roads and blocked off some of the busiest car parks to stop more people getting stuck.

Dancer Amie Everest, 28, was trapped in an upper level car park with her boyfriend Ian Varley, 32, from Medway.

They were eventually stuck waiting in the same queue for four-and-a-half hours.

Drivers were seen crying behind their wheels as a massive influx of seasonal shoppers caused the roads in and out of the huge mall to bottleneck, locking hundreds of families in their cars for hours on end

Emma Mulcrow shared these photos of the jam she was stuck in while trying to leave Bluewater on Monday. She described it as 'a joke', having tried to leave twice without any success

Amie said: 'The layout of the car park is poorly designed with only one lane used as an exit.

'When Bluewater staff realised there was a problem they blocked off many of the entrances to stop more traffic getting stuck.

'The simple thing would have been to let us all go down the entrance to get out, but they wouldn't let us.

'Cars were bumper to bumper and at a standstill. I was shopping from 9am until 3pm and trying to get out from 4pm.

Police had to be called to Bluewater (pictured), Kent, after a last-minute gift rush brought 240 acres of car parking space to a complete standstill

'Most people were stuck near spaces so after a couple of hours they gave up and went back into the shopping centre to eat, but the people whose cars were in the queue were stuck.

'It was absolute mayhem.'

Kim Elliott, 24, gave up trying to leave after an hour sitting stationary in the queue.

She said: 'I got there at 3.30pm and saw loads of traffic trying to leave.

WERE YOU STUCK IN A SIMILARLY AWFUL CHRISTMAS TRAFFIC JAM OVER THE WEEKEND? If so, email euan.mclelland@mailonline.co.uk or phone 0203 615 0629 Advertisement

'I was waiting over an hour before I went back into my parking space and went back inside to ask staff what was happening.

'They said nothing was wrong and it was just people leaving. It took more than three-and-a-half hours for me to get out.

'The police shut some of the roads just to let people out of the car parks.

'Everyone said they had never seen anything like it before - a few people said they'd been trying to leave since 4pm and were still there at 9pm.'

One driver, Sophie Stevens, 34, said she saw one woman sobbing in frustration and pleading with Bluewater staff to help them.

One shopper, named Sarah, posted on Twitter that after leaving the shopping centre, she managed to travel just 150metres in two hours.

Instagram user Sonia Spring shared this photo of cars sitting nose to tail as they all fight to get out of the shopping centre's car park

Another of her images shows stationary vehicles queued behind one another on two of the multi-storey car park's floors and outside too

She said: 'She looked like she was having a panic attack. She was crying and begging staff.

'Other people were getting involved in aggressive beeping wars.

'I will never, ever go to Bluewater at Christmas again. It was horrible.'

Charlie Connolly, 26, arrived at the centre at 11am and first tried to leave at 4pm.

But after getting stuck he and a friend parked up and went back in, attempting to leave again at 7pm.

Tailbacks were a regular sight at shopping centres nationwide over the weekend. This image shows queues snaking outside Lakeside in Essex

Oliver Chivers said he was stuck in traffic outside the Lakeside Shopping Centre for two hours - after working a nine hour shift

He said: 'It's been crazy. It was getting out of the main building that held us up as everything filters into one lane. It was a nightmare.'

Other shoppers took to social media to vent their huge frustrations at the traffic tailbacks.

Adrian Dobbs tweeted: 'Time to park in Bluewater: 10mins. Time to watch Star Wars 2hr. Time to do xmas shopping 30 mins. Time to get out of car park currently 2.5hrs..!'

It's been crazy. It was getting out of the main building that held us up as everything filters into one lane. It was a nightmare. Christmas shopper, Charlie Connolly

Chris Clarke posted: 'After 6 hour delay in the #Bluewater carpark. Finally on the move!'

A spokeswoman for Kent Police said: 'From what I understand a broken down vehicle and the sheer volume of traffic at Bluewater tonight caused delays to people trying to exit the shopping centre car parks.

'Local officers attended and directed traffic to help clear the backlog and the traffic was running freely by 10pm.'

Bluewater is the fourth largest shopping centre in the UK and opened in 1999 on the site of a disused quarry near Dartford.

A spokesman said staff were 'aware' of the traffic problems and apologised to visitors.

He added: 'Our operations team is working with Kent Police to resolve this matter as quickly as possible.

'Traffic is now flowing more freely and congestion in the blue car park - the area worst affected - is being cleared.'

Bluewater was not the only packed mall to encounter traffic difficulties, with visitors to Glasgow's Silverburn Shopping Centre also reporting wait times of up to three hours leaving the car park there

There were also reports of similar traffic nightmares in shopping malls elsewhere in the country.

Visitors to Silverburn in Glasgow claimed it took them two hours to leave over the weekend.

Oliver Chivers said he was stuck in traffic outside the Lakeside Shopping Centre for two hours.

He told MailOnline: 'With only one lane out of every exit of Lakeside, it took me over two hours to move 300 yards.