A DEPARTMENT store had to be evacuated twice in one day after customers spotted rats in the store.
The High Wycombe branch of C & A in the Chilterns Shopping Centre, Frogmoor, had to evacuate all the customers and close the store for more than an hour after a rodent was spotted last week.
Pest control experts were called in at 10.15am and staff re-opened the clothes store to the public at 11.35am.
But later that day customer Alice Vranch got a major shock when she moved a pair of boots in the store and saw a rat flee.
The store had to be closed again from 6.45pm until 7pm so the vermin could be properly removed.
Miss Vranch, 25, from Cock Lane, Wycombe Marsh, said: "I moved a boot on the floor and there was a huge rat.
"The staff said 'We had this trouble this morning but we thought we had got rid of it'. It was quite a shock to see it. It was huge."
The interior design student said: I intend to phone their head office. This is the year 2000, not 1900. You can't have rats in Wycombe now."
Chris Williams, head of corporate communications at C & A, said:
"It seems very peculiar that it should be in a clothes store because there is no food around. I have never known this happen before.
"The whole thing is very unfortunate and we do apologise to the lady but I do believe the store followed the right procedure. We are very, very sorry about it. If sufficient apologies were not made at the time it is very unfortunate."
Comments are closed on this article.