Supermarket aisles are in chaos as panic buying shoppers ignore pleas and continue to pick shelves clean.

Fresh food, eggs, bread and toilet rolls are among the products disappearing almost as soon as deliveries have hit the shop floor.

There have been empty shelves in the town centre at Tesco and Sainsburys this week. And Iceland closed during the day to give staff the chance to restock shelves.

Sue Porter, 66, was shopping in the town centre. She said: “I’m surprised there’s so many empty shelves. I can’t understand people panic buying. People aren’t thinking of the elderly. It just seems daft.

“When we get the all clear people are going to have so much stuff stockpiled.

“I’m just living day-to-day and hoping things will settle down eventually.”

Valerie Knee had travelled from Park South to go to Iceland but was turned away.

She told the Adver: “People are just going mad over shopping.

“It’s scary. I only wanted a bag of frozen chips but I couldn’t afford to wait until they re-opened the store.”

One shopper, Hannah Abu-Ebid, was waiting at home for a delivery.

She is 31 weeks pregnant and she and her husband are in self-isolation.

She ordered a delivery from Sainsbury’s but after it didn’t arrive she phoned and was told none of her items were in stock.

Hannah said: “The shop was about £86 worth and just the general stuff like nappies and pizza. It was normal, we didn’t want to stockpile.

“We added some stuff the night before and got an email in the morning saying that it was fine and our delivery was still on schedule.”

The delivery should have arrived between 1pm and 2pm but when it didn’t arrive Hannah called the supermarket.

“I eventually got through and they phoned the store and was told nothing was in stock so the delivery was cancelled. We weren’t told about this at all, I’m shocked.”

A spokesperson from Sainsbury’s said: “We are contacting Hannah to apologise for the inconvenience. We will do our best to rearrange her slot.”

Yesterday, Waitrose joined Tesco, Sainsbury's, Aldi, Asda and Morrisons in limiting the number of one thing shoppers could buy.