Shocking video footage has emerged which shows the moment a group of Tesco shoppers were told to "sit" like dogs before battling one another for cut-price meat at a store in Northampton.

The amateur video, filmed by Facebook user Johnny Lester, shows a group pile around the discounted meat counter at the store. Staff try to get people to stop moving forward, telling them to "wait" and "sit," so that they can be let out of the counter.

In scenes reminiscent of the Black Friday sales in America, people suddenly lurch forward, scrambling to the floor as they grab the discounted products and pile them up in to their shopping baskets. As the carnage unfolds, a woman is heard in the background tells a member of staff, "I am sending this to your head office because they are disgusting".

Lester posted below the video:

"I actually cannot believe what I have just seen in Tesco!! People waiting for the reduced food to be brought out, fair enough.
But the staff have to tell them to wait and stay back like you would a dog while your preparing its dinner, then have to be told to let the staff out so they don't get crushed when every one piles in....literally, how there was not a fight is beyond me. I'm actually lost for words that this can happen like that in a supermarket and is let to happen nightly.....you have to watch the video to believe it....... [sic]"

The video has gone viral since being published on Facebook and has now been viewed over 2 million times.

A Tesco spokesman said an investigation is being conducted to make sure the incident does not occur again.