Arcade owner hopes claw machine with toilet roll prizes will ‘calm people down’

An amusement arcade has replaced toys with toilet rolls in a claw machine as coronavirus fears have sparked panic buying across the UK.

Eddy Chapman, 34, has come up with a plan to halt the hoarding at Chapmans Fundland in Bridlington, East Yorkshire, after being baffled by terrified shoppers cleaning supermarket shelves in the past few days.

The arcade owner has replaced the stuffed animals in the Eddy's Maxx Grab machine with toiler paper rolls which punters can try to grab for just 30p a go.

Mr Chapman said this was a way to spread some cheer in the wake of the coronavirus crisis, The Sun reports.

He said: “I think all this panic buying of toilet roll has been loo-dicrous, and so I came up with this idea to hopefully get people to calm down.”

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“It’s 30p a go and we’ve replaced the plush toys in the machine with the loo paper, it’s not quilted or anything, just bog standard.

“It’s just a bit of fun which is what coming to seaside towns like Bridlington is all about, I think people need to relax a little and stop panic buying."

Supermarkets have started rationing products to get a handle on coronavirus panic buying.

Bosses at Tesco have decided to limit customers to five items each of UHT milk, pasta and baked beans, both online and in store, according to The Telegraph .

As of this morning, the number of coronavirus cases in the UK stands at 211 – after two more cases have been confirmed in Wales this morning.

The Department of Health said more than 21,000 people had been tested for the virus.

Calls to the NHS 111 service have increased by more than a third compared to the same period last year, with 120,000 extra calls in the first week of March.

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