Machete terror at late night store (From The Northern Echo)

Machete terror at late night store

8:00am Thursday 9th February 2012 in Durham City News By Gavin Havery, Reporter (Derwentside & Tyneside)

SUPERMARKET customers fled in terror when a man walked into a Tesco Extra store wielding a machete, a sock filled with pool balls and a knuckle-duster.

Armed police used a Taser to bring the man down after a tense stand-off at the superstore in the early hours of yesterday.

Staff and customers ran for their lives when the 30-year-old homeless man, who has not been named, walked through the doors of the store in Dragonville, Durham City, brandishing a machete and a pool cue.

One employee, who witnessed the drama, said: “It’s not every day you have a nutter with a machete chasing the night shift at Tesco. Thank goodness the police arrived quickly and seemed to handle situation well. I am just glad none of my friends and colleagues were injured.”

Durham Police said they had to evacuate about 50 latenight shoppers and staff from the store – one of the biggest in the North-East – at about 1am.

Detective Inspector Nev Carmen said members of the public could be reassured the incident was an isolated one.

A police spokesman defended the use of the Taser, adding: “When people are armed with an offensive weapon, the response is armed – that is standard.

They would have Tasers as the first option.

“It was a very quick deployment and was all over in about ten minutes.”

The police spokesman continued: “They got 50 people out, but we don’t know how many were staff and how many were members of the public. You would think at that time in the morning there would not be that many people in shopping, but it is sometimes surprising.”

Christine Burn, a member of the Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers member who works on the checkout, said: “Although, thankfully, no one was hurt, this incident will have a great psychological impact on staff.”

Before Christmas the union launched its annual Freedom Not Fear campaign, aimed at stopping customers verbally or physically abusing workers.

Mrs Burn added: “This the sort of thing the campaign was about. I don’t think any staff were hurt, but we could do with more security because we only have one security guard on a night.”

A Tesco spokesman said: “Staff followed procedures, alerted the police, evacuated the store as a precautionary measure and a man was arrested.

Fortunately, no one was hurt and the matter now is in the hands of police.”

A 30-year-old man, of no fixed address, was last night charged with affray and four counts of possessing an offensive weapon. He was remanded in custody and will appear at Consett Magistrates’ Court this morning.