Parts of the Midland motorway network ground to a halt on Thursday morning as thousands of shoppers descended on the new Curry’s Megastore at Wednesbury.

Extra police were drafted in to control crowds as people began camping outside from as early as 8pm on Wednesday and by 5am up to 3,000 customers had gathered.

Limited opening day offers at the store included satnavs at £20 a time and half-price TVs.

As the swarms of bargain hunters rolled up at the retail park at Axletree Way, the Highways Agency was forced to close the north-bound exit road from Junction 9 of the motorway.

Queues of up to seven miles had formed, with tailbacks back to Spaghetti Junction (Junction 6) on the M6 and hold-ups on the M5 as far back as Junction 4 at Bromsgrove.

A Highways Agency spokeswoman said motorists were hit by delays of up to half-an-hour in journey times.

A spokeswoman for Curry’s today said: “We have been staggered at the response to the launch. We opened at 6.30am and the opening deals saw the sat navs and the half-price 40-inch TVs gone by 7am.

“From about 8pm people started arriving and we were handing out tea and coffee to people who’d come for the night. In fact we also put up a large TV screen so people could watch the England game.

“We have been very surprised by the huge influx of people. I think, given the current economic climate, everyone is looking for a bargain at the moment.”

Wednesbury store manager, John Fisher, said in 20 years of store openings he had never seen anything like it.

Launch celebrations continue over the weekend. On Friday morning Sutton Coldfield’s Olympic gold medallist, cyclist Paul Manning, will be at the venue meeting customers and signing autographs.

Mr Fisher added: “The team working here have pulled together incredibly hard to get this launch up-and-running. We had liaised with local police earlier in the week but never anticipated the vast amount of customers who’d turned up by first thing today.”