Westfield Stratford Shopping centre evacuated after small fire sparks stampede among panicked

PANICKED shoppers caused a "stampede" as they ran screaming from Westfield shopping centre in Stratford after a small fire erupted.

Mass panic was sparked at around 5.15pm after emergency crews raced to the East London shopping centre after hearing reports of smoke billowing from the second floor.

The Met Police tweeted: "We are aware of a fire alarm at #Westfield #Stratford, officers are at the scene. "We believe it's a small fire at this early stage.

"Will confirm with a further tweet asap."

They later added: "Incident confirmed as a small fire at #Westfield #Stratford, police cordons have now been lifted."

London Fire Brigade said: "We’re dealing with a small fire in #Westfield shopping centre in #Stratford. Sprinklers have activated. We’ll update when we have more soon."

Terrified shoppers took to social media claiming people were "running like crazy" as they were evacuated.

@iamchrisbrewer said: "Holy crap. Just boarded an Overground train at Stratford and dozens of people came aboard running. Said something happened at the mall. Fire Brigade is here."

@floeydrama wrote: "I'm at Stratford Westfield. I heard a boom (not sure what exactly). And people were running away like crazy. Some shops have their alarm on so they're closing down. I can hear police and ambulance. Hopefully it was just a scare."

@RyanMorgan_6 said: "Being in Westfield and the fire alarm going off is pure chaos, human bumper cars."

While @errongordon said: "At @westfieldstrat and being evacuated. People running shouting something about an attack. Everyone looking very worried. No more details ATM #Westfield".

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