People have been queuing outside a supermarket to get their hands on goods before the shelves empty in scenes being likened to Christmas shopping.

Shoppers arrived before Aldi in Strood opened this morning after the coronavirus has led people to panic buy essential items.

The German superstore, in Friary Place near Strood railway station, saw long queues at about 7.50am.

The shop has now limited the purchase of loo roll, kitchen roll, long life milk, soap and other items.

Julie Ali, who planned to shop at the store this morning, said: "Aldi at 7.50am. Definitely worse than Christmas."

"I was up early this morning so I thought I’ll go and get a few bits but I didn’t think it would be like this.

"The panic buying has gone mad, I'm glad Aldi today is limiting some items, but people are going over the top and there isn’t enough for others."

The outbreak of the virus has caused widespread panic with shops running out of hand sanitzer, toilet roll and pasta across the county.

Staff at another Aldi branch in Kent were overheard saying that the majority of stores are taking more money this week than they did in the final run up to Christmas.

Dr Virginia Spiegler from the University of Kent said: "Panic buying is examined by experts of consumer behaviour and marketing as a means of opportunity, but it is also of great concern to operations management experts.

"Although its immediate effect is empty shelves in shops, panic buying can hurt the entire supply chain, forcing suppliers to temporarily ramp up capacity to respond to a demand that was not there before.

"Panic buying causes severe and long-lasting problems in supply chains."

In Tesco in Sheerness, the shelves had been stripped of toilet rolls by 8.30am.

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