The opening of a pizza shop descended into chaos when hundreds of young people turned up with smoke grenades being let off in the street.
West Mercia Police were called to Fireaway Pizza in Worcester on Bank Holiday Monday after the new takeaway had promised its first 100 customers free pizza.
It led to a mass of people flocking to queue outside the shop on Angel Street.
But the event started to descend into mayhem with a DJ with loudspeakers playing pop music, fire breathers and a fleet of luxury cars turning up at the venue.
West Mercia Police were forced to shut the road at 1pm due to safety concerns as the area became crowded with people and long queues snaked around the block.
Witnesses described how "absolute madness"' ensued as parts of the city centre were turned into a "glorified youth club".
Owner Harry Singh, 23, defended the opening event and blamed the chaotic scenes outside his shop on "external parties".
He said: "All we have done today is open the shop, everything else is external, we just opened the shop, the rest was externally planned.
"It's been good, we've had a great opening, and we've had a great turnout.
"The police think that all the havoc outside is my fault.
"We didn't know this was going to happen, and we did try and calm things down as much as possible.
"All the havoc is from external parties. We just wanted to open up the shop and give away free pizzas."
Initially, a procession of firebreathers and luxury cars was planned to mark the opening of the pizza shop but that was scrapped on the advice of police.
The flash motors ended up having to park around the corner outside a shopping centre but black and orange smoke grenades were still let off in the street.
Residents said they had never seen such chaotic scenes for the opening of a pizza shop while others criticised the police response and branded them "killjoys".
One person commented on social media: "I've never seen anything like it for the opening of a pizza shop or anything else for that matter. It was absolute madness.
"There were youths going around on scramblers, smoke grenades going off and it was like a nightclub in the middle of the day. It was like a human zoo."
Another added: "Really irresponsible having to waste police time all because of their silly publicity stunt.
"Everyone involved should be ashamed, turned out beautiful city into a glorified youth club. How desperate must you be as well to queue like that to get a pizza."
A third person put "Should have closed the pizza place not the road. Treat the cause not the symptom but police are too afraid to upset people."
Another wrote: "Looks a great atmosphere, bit overkill to start closing roads and trying to shut parts of the event down. Surely they had crimes to be solving."
One web user added: "Wow, heard there were five police vans to police the opening of a pizza shop. What a waste of police resources. Absolute killjoys."
Officers shut the road around 1pm citing safety reasons, describing the event as "unplanned." The road was re-opened at around d 2.45pm.
A force spokesperson said: "Around 12pm yesterday (Monday 29 August) we received reports of a large gathering outside a new pizza restaurant on Angel Street, Worcester.
"Officers made the decision to close the street to traffic for the protection of the public."
Residents also said masked youths on bikes and mopeds were also terrorising shoppers by pulling wheelies and abusing police.
One local, who did not want to be named, added: "Four police cars chased one of them past us at around 12.30.
"No licence plate, pulling a wheelie, and vigorously gesturing and swearing at the police as he went. Miracle that nobody got run over.
"One guy told me there were a few of them taking advantage of the additional strain on police from the opening."
Pizza shop owner Mr Singh added: "It was tarnished by the hooligans on the mopeds who created havoc.
"And I thank the police who helped it stay under control.
"We had no knowledge of the cars and mopeds.
"We wanted a smooth opening and we wanted to serve the community.
"All I was doing was opening the pizza shop, that was my responsibility.
"I'm not even from the area, what benefit would I have from the moped drivers coming down?"
