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Chaos broke out in French supermarkets as shoppers fought to get their hands on heavily-discounted jars of Nutella on Thursday.

Intermarché supermarkets offered a 70 per cent discount on the popular chocolate and hazelnut spread, bringing the price down from €4.50 (£3.90) to €1.40 (£1.20).

But reports in France claimed bargain-hunters were acting like “animals” as they scrambled to stock up on Nutella.

Footage on social media showed adults pushing and scrapping to get their hands on discount jars in scenes reminiscent of the infamous Black Friday sales in the US.

Police were called to a store in Ostricourt in northern France to deal with a brawl as a result of the sale, The Local reported.

One customer told French media: "They are like animals. A woman had her hair pulled, an elderly lady took a box on her head, another had a bloody hand.”

A worker at an Intermarché shop in central France told Le Progrès newspaper: "We were trying to get in between the customers but they were pushing us."

In one store in Saint-Cyprien, a member of staff was reportedly pounced on while carrying a crate of jars on to the shop floor. Other reports likened the scenes to "riots".

Around 365 million kilos of the spread is eaten every year around the world, with an estimated 100 million jars consumed in France alone.

Nutella was created by the Ferrero family in northern Italy in the 1940s.