Video shows attack

Total frustration at kika: customer attacks security

Wild scenes at Kika in Linz

(Bild: Karoline Singer, Krone KREATIV)

Things went haywire at the Kika store in Linz on Friday afternoon. A video shows an angry customer of the insolvent furniture store wrestling with a security employee and ripping his glasses off his face. Nerves are on edge because of the bankruptcy.

Wild shouting in front of the exit of the Kika in Linz-Urfahr: a customer and a security guard are wrestling, literally fighting over a product that they are both tugging at. Until the customer goes completely berserk and rips the glasses off the security guard's face. The "Krone" newspaper received a video of the shocking incident.

Dispute over product
According to initial information, the dispute on Friday afternoon is likely to have been about the furniture store's bankruptcy: a customer is said to have paid for something before the insolvency, but then no longer received it. So she is said to have simply grabbed it and taken something as a "replacement".

Security guards in all stores
Nerves are on edge in many of the 17 Kika/Leiner branches across Austria. Because of the many angry customers, the insolvent furniture chain has hired security staff in all stores.

Consumer advocates are calling for calm. After all, it's not the staff's fault, quite the opposite: the bankruptcy means that the employees themselves are losing their jobs.