Huge queues formed outside a shopping centre Primark at around 5am as the store welcomed back customers, as Covid-19 rules are eased.

The keen shoppers lined up outside Primark at Lakeside Shopping Centre this morning - with some describing the scenes as dramatic and surprising.

All non-essential shops are able to re-open from today while pubs and restaurants will be able to serve food and drink to customers outdoors.

Ricky Steed, 28, from Benfleet was in the queue with his partner. He said: "It was dramatic, and entertaining. I didn’t expect that many people to turn up and the queue to get quite as long as it did so early in the morning.

"I was only queuing for around 30 minutes because we were fairly close to the front but once we were inside it was okay.

"But within 10 minutes it was a complete mess exactly how we expected it to be, with clothes on wrong racks and on the floor."