In the words of one Intermarché employee, from the northeastern French town of Forbach, who spoke anonymously to Agence France-Presse: “People just rushed in, shoving everyone, breaking things. It was like an orgy. We were on the verge of calling the police.”
“This is not normal,” said one woman, captured in the background of one video posted on Twitter.
“We were trying to get between the customers, but they were pushing us,” said another employee at a location in central France, speaking to the local newspaper Le Progrès.
“They are like animals,” a customer said in the French press, describing the spectacle in one store. “A woman had her hair pulled, an elderly lady took a box on her head, another had a bloody hand.”