UK snow: Supermarkets left with empty shelves from panic buying

Supermarkets were left with empty shelves today as panic buyers stocked up on supplies before snow swept across the UK.

Bread, milk and other essentials were all in short supply across southern Wales after the Met Office released a rare 'red' warning predicting extreme weather.

Staff described the hours of panic buying as "a crazy stampede" as stores had to put up signs apologising for running out of stock.

One Sainsbury's worker at the store in Pontypridd, said: "It was like there was a famine on, people were panicking, it was a crazy stampede of people just picking up anything they could and rushing out with it.

"I couldn't believe what I was seeing, we had never had any kind of rush like that before.

"When the rush was over there weren't even any crumpets left, we had to make some signs to apologise to people."

Related: Slideshow: Britain braces itself for weekend of snow

Shoppers who arrived after 8pm found themselves unable to get any fresh food in Tesco in Cardiff or Asda and Sainsbury's in Pontypridd.

Shopper Steve Chatterley, who took these amazing pictures, said: "I couldn't believe what I was seeing.

"We went to three different supermarkets just to try and find some milk for a cup of tea, but there was none anywhere.

"The shops were still very busy at eight when I arrived there, it's normally empty at that time of night.

"The staff were in shock, they said they'd never seen anything like it before."

Tesco staff had to put up makeshift signs after the rush came to an end apologising for the lack of stock.

One read: "Due to unexpected demand we are out of stock of bread. Sorry for an inconvenience caused".