Police were called twice in one evening to the same Weymouth store following a disturbance.

Officers descended on Home Bargains, the new discount store at Littlemoor shopping centre, following reports of an altercation.

A spokesman for Dorset Police said officers were first called at 6.05pm on Tuesday to a disturbance at Home Bargains.

According to an onlooker, there was an altercation after two young women entered the store.

One of them was said to be shouting and claimed she had been assaulted.

Staff attempted to contact the store manager and called the police.

The onlooker, who wishes to remain anonymous, said the girl continued to shout and act aggressively until police officers arrived and calmed her down.

After the police officers left the scene, Dorset Police received another call reporting a further disturbance at 6.55pm.

A spokesman for Dorset

Police said: “Two people were then moved on. We’re carrying out further enquiries, but no arrests have been made at this stage.”

The relative of a Home Bargains employee, said the staff member was left ‘in a state’ after the incident.

He said: “She was in tears. Staff were all very upset. It’s not a situation anyone wants to happen. Some people can deal with confrontations better than others and have the size and ability, but nobody expected it to happen. It’s pretty poor really.”

He also claimed that no manager was on site during the disturbance.

He added: “The store has only been open a while. I will be asking to see a risk assessment for how it deals with incidents like this.”

“It annoys me when incidents like this fall into the hands of the police, if there is nothing in place at the store to deal with it in the first instance, it’s like they’ve accepted incidents like this will happen.”

Home Bargains did not want to comment.

Meanwhile, borough councillor Ann Weaving who represents the Littlemoor ward, said she felt police didn’t deal with the incident properly.

She said: “It’s ridiculous and unacceptable, I don’t think it was dealt with properly.”

She claims police barred the girl from the store for five hours and added: “The people in the store were just trying to do their job and work.”