Birmingham's landmark Bullring shopping centre is celebrating its second birthday today having attracted 74 million visitors since it opened its doors.

Centre bosses hailed the figures and said they proved what every shopper in the city already knew - that the Bullring is one of the most popular shopping destinations in the country.

Bullring general manager Tim Walley said: "These new figures are concrete proof of Bullring's enduring popularity and confirm its role as the driving force behind Birmingham's retail revolution.

"In the past year the city has moved even further up the UK retail rankings to take second place, a position which was unimaginable three years ago.

"This really is the perfect news with which to celebrate our second birthday."

Mr Walley said there had been fears the centre's novelty would wear off after the first year but they had proved unfounded.

" Our second year was always going to be the most challenging. It was essential that we maintained the momentum after the initial excitement died down and continued to provide shoppers with reasons to keep coming back to Bullring.

"That we have managed to achieve all this despite a challenging national economic picture is testament to the strength of Bullring's offer as a retail and leisure destination," he said.

In the last year, an average of 720,000 people visited shops in the centre each week. The busiest day of the year was December 27 when 211,000 people arrived in time for the post-Christmas sales.

Group director of statistic company FootFall Ian Wilcock said: "In our opinion Bullring has been the most successful major new opening in recent memory.

"We expect this phenomenal success to be maintained well into the centre's third year of trading and beyond," he added.