GREEDY retail bosses' chase for profits reached new heights yesterday as police across Britain had to protect staff and customers caught up in a chaotic US-style "Black Friday" frenzy.

Shop workers did their best to marshal the pre-Christmas sales but faced insults and threats from some of the shoppers incited by big-name chains to stage mini-riots.

Observers likened the TV coverage to the plot of Hollywood trilogy the Hunger Games, in which working-class people are forced to fight to the death for the entertainment of the wealthy.