From time to time at the end of the day, fast food restaurants have been known to give away free food. It's a common practice at places like Pret A Manger or Itsu, but one Subway location in London was plunged into chaos as people learned of the promise of free food, and the entire ordeal was captured on film.
Out in Dagenham, which is located in the east of London, a Subway location was forced to lock its door as a rabid crowd of people descended on the restaurant at around 6pm last Friday evening. They had heard that free food would be given away at this Subway, but the sheer volume of people hungry for sandwiches scared workers at the Subway into locking their doors.
The pandemonium was said to have been caused when one of the employees decided to give food away rather than throwing it in the trash at the end of the day, though it's not quite clear at this point whether this was true or simply a rumour spread around.
Either way, the prospect of free food was enough for around 300 young people to surround the entrance to the shop, shouting angrily and demanding a free sandwich. Featured in the video is a man - believed to be an employee at the Subway - fending off the mob with a fire extinguisher.
Before long, however, the restaurant's window is smashed open by someone wielding a traffic cone, and the ordeal reaches fever pitch soon afterward.
The footage of the incident was quickly uploaded to social media, where thousands of people viewed it, and held a dim view over the young people involved in the incident. The angry reactions on the video help to tell the whole story, and in the comments, people are just as mad.
"Where are the parents of these kids? Firefighters turn your hoses on these kids that’ll send them back home faster than their feet can carry them-why we pee about with these kids is unbelievable, short sharp kick up the backside is what they need," said one furious commenter, and these sentiments were echoed throughout - one person even going as far as seeing the incident as an indictment of modern parenting.
"Its [sic] a matter of children having children, having children and all wanting to be the child's best friend instead of a parent and letting them run riot and rule the roost. Giving them everything they want and not giving any discipline or showing how to be a respectable decent human being."
The video above shows the beginning of the response to the incident, with police cars - as well as fire engines - descending upon the Subway location in Heathway, Dagenham. Police have confirmed that nobody was injured following the horrifying scenes. They also confirmed that an investigation was underway, but no arrests have been made as of time of writing.
