And finally…nutty chocolate riots ‘spread’ across French supermarkets

So keen are lovers of the hazelnut-infused treat to grab it for the bargain price of €1.40 (70 per cent down from €4.50 (£3.90)), that ugly scenes have been reported at multiple Intermarché locations.

Police were even called when people began fighting and pushing one another.

“They are like animals. A woman had her hair pulled, an elderly lady took a box on her head, another had a bloody hand,” one customer told French media.

A member of staff at one Intermarché shop in central France told the regional newspaper Le Progrès: “We were trying to get in between the customers but they were pushing us.”

And today shoppers in a supermarket near Toulouse were being handed just one pot of the discounted jars each in order to maintain order.

https://twitter.com/Nostress973/status/956527862143766529

Some 365 million kilos of Nutella, a hazelnut chocolate spread, is consumed every year in 160 countries around the world.

It was created by the Ferrero family in the 1940s in the Piedmont region of Italy, which is famed for its hazelnuts.

The firm said it regretted Thursday’s violence, but noted that the discount had been unilaterally decided by Intermarché.