BLACK Friday hit East Lancashire high streets and shopping centres yesterday as hundreds of residents grabbed the hottest deals.

This year some of the big High Street brands gave shoppers talks before they were allowed to enter store, including the dos and don’ts of ‘enjoy yourselves’ and ‘no abuse or violence’.

Last year saw scenes of pandemonium as shoppers grappled with each other for electrical items at bargain prices.

In Blackburn The Mall displayed a 12-hour Black Friday sale with retailers offering up to 70 per cent in store and many more offered up to 50 per cent off selected lines.

And in Burnley Tesco closed during the early hours to get ready for a morning rush of very eager bargain hunters.

Keen shoppers Michelle Marsden, 51 and Vanessa Marsden, 26, both from Blackburn said they went to the town centre as early as they could to get the best deals.

Michelle said: “We went at 8.30am to see what was going on and to see what deals we could get.

“There wasn’t as many people around then as we thought there would be but it gradually got busier and busier.

“There wasn’t any fighting or squabbling for goods which was positive to see, but there was lots of queuing in all the shops.”

Rochelle Derbyshire, 21, from Blackburn, said the idea of Black Friday was good for specific things.

She said: “I’ve got a young child and its a great opportunity for parents to get things for their kids without having to worry too much about costs.

“I’ve picked up a few things today but I never thought I would, I only went in to see what was going on.”

The websites of some of the UK’s biggest retailers however struggled to cope with the volume of traffic which was set to make this year’s Black Friday the biggest online shopping day in UK history.

By the end of the day retail analyst Experian-IMRG predicted that spending online would hit £1.07 billion, a 32 per cent increase on last year’s £810 million.

Companies such as John Lewis and Argos struggled to keep their websites up and running.

The Mall displayed a 12-hour Black Friday sale with retailers offering up to 70 per cent in store and many more offered up to 50 per cent off selected lines.