'Like animals': Shoppers fight over heavily-discounted Nutella in French supermarkets

A Nutella sale has led to wild scenes in supermarkets across France as shoppers scrambled to get their hands on the hazelnut spread.

Supermarket chain Intermaché dropped the price of a 950g jar of Nutella from €4.50 (£3.90) to €1.40 (£1.23) - a discount of 70%.

At least one store was forced to call the police, while others reported selling the same amount of Nutella in less than an hour than they would in three months.

Shoppers were "like animals" according to a witness at an Intermaché in the town of Rive-de-Gier, where 600 pots sold in five minutes, French newspaper Le Progres reports.

"A woman had her hair pulled, an elderly lady took a box to her head, another had a bloody hand," the unnammed shopper was quoted as saying.

"It was horrible."

At a store in L'Horme one customer received a black eye in the melee.

"We were trying to get in between the customers, but they were pushing us," an employee told Le Progres.

In other stores employees said customers had come into the store late on Wednesday evening to stash pots of Nutella in hiding places in preparation for Thursday morning's sale.

Ferrero, which owns the Nutella brand, said it was not involved in the promotion

"(Ferrero) deplores this operation and its concequences that create confusion and disappointment in the minds of customers," it said in a statement.

But the crazed scenes may not be over yet, with the sale set to continue on Friday and Saturday.