TOY shop workers barricaded a doorway to stop a family stealing a trolley full of Christmas presents.

Staff at Smyths toy shop, at the Rayleigh Weir retail park, lined up at the exit of the toy shop, after two families caused havoc in the aisles.

Children were seen grabbing bikes off the shelves and riding through the store, while parents were shouting expletives at each other.

The store was full of customers rushing to buy last-minute gifts between 9.30pm and 10pm on Thursday when chaos began.

One said: “The kids were trying to ride the bikes out of the store to nick them.

“The staff were all lined up across the door to stop them. The adults were effing and blinding at each other as well.”

As one of the families left the store with some purchases, a woman from the other family tried to leave the shop with a full trolley of items she hadn’t paid for.

One of the store’s duty managers, who was working at the time, but asked not to be named, said: “We had a couple of staff members helping them out with the electric ride-on bikes as they are quite heavy and that’s when they tried it on.

“They tried to walk out of the shop, but we had already spotted them and asked for their receipts.

“They tried to play dumb, saying they thought they had paid for it.

“It’s hard to say how much stock was in the trolley they were leaving with, but there were some Frozen bits and pieces which are expensive and some beauty cases.

“The shop was very busy as we were open late in the run-up for Christmas and it was a bit uncomfortable for a lot of customers because they were loud.

“However it was fine in the end. The children also put the bicycles back.”