THERE was chaos at a packed shopping centre in Brighton as environmental protests met with a Black Friday frenzy.

Police barricaded the doors to young Extinction Rebellion protesters outside the Churchill Square arcade today, leaving shoppers crammed inside.

Helen Darcy, 46, and Dave Suit, 57, came out just after the police opened the doors.

They said: "We were doing our best to avoid the Black Friday crowds.

"We cut through Topshop which was horrific.

"There were protests outside and everyone was penned in milling around.

"The queues are huge.

"We didn't fancy picking up any bargains with queues half a mile long."

Extinction Rebellion had planned it's own Black Friday market in the shopping centre.

Claudia Fisher, a member of the group, said: "We're giving away free quality goods in protest against this unseemly consumerist frenzy.

"We've got an ecological and climate catastrophe just around the corner and we can't go on mindlessly buying things."