More extraordinary footage today showed more than 200 shoppers queueing at a supermarket before the doors had even opened.

Video from Tesco Extra in Watford at 6am revealed customers waiting in line it what seemed like a never-ending queue.

It was evidence that shoppers are still keen to get their hands on supplies in case the government decides to put even tighter restrictions on the public going out, amid the coronavirus pandemic.

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The queue of shoppers snaked through the car park. Kenan Akbulut estimated there were at least 200 waiting

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And there were similar scenes again at Costco Bushey this morning where the queue of customers almost stretched out onto the A41 – although we understand Costco staff were limiting the number of shoppers inside the store at a time.

Kenan Akbulut, who filmed the video in the Tesco car park turned up at the Watford store at 6am.

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He explained: “They (Tesco) closed last night at 10pm to take deliveries and restock. They said bread and milk was being delivered in the morning.

“I needed to go shopping before work as otherwise I would have been in the same position as last night.

“I was not surprised by the queue having seen what was available in the store last night. By 6.15am, the store was packed.”

Read more: Shoppers queue into Costco Bushey

Photos that Mr Akbulut took from inside Tesco Watford last night, one of the country’s biggest supermarkets, showed empty shelves in numerous departments – scenes repeated across our local supermarkets and across the UK.

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Empty shelves like this along many aisles

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There was no bread to buy at the store last night

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No milk available either

Mr Akbulut added: “Inside the store this morning, the majority of people were ignoring the item rule and notices and were having items pulled at checkout by staff, which was causing delays.

“Some shoppers were shopping appropriately. There was still no toilet paper.”

So how are supermarkets solving the stockpiling issue?

From today, Tesco has in place a restriction which is shoppers can only buy a maximum of three items on every product line. Multi-buy promotions are also being removed. These restrictions are in place at every store.

Other measures introduced by Tesco include:

• Closing all meat, fish, and deli counters, and salad bars to allow staff to focus on restocking shelves

• All 24 hour stores close at 10pm and reopen at 6am to allow cleaning and restocking

• Inviting customers to pay by card rather than cash

• Social distancing at checkouts

• Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from 9am-10am, elderly customers will be prioritised. Other members of the public are advised to avoid shopping at this time. In place in all non-Express stores

Meanwhile, Sainsbury's revealed it will only allow customers to buy a maximum of three of any single item, while Morrisons said it is limiting purchases across 1,250 lines.

Asda also announced it is restricting shoppers to three items on all food and closing its cafes and pizza counters, while temporarily reducing the opening hours of all its 24-hour stores for restocking.

Aldi has already introduced limits of four items per shopper across all products.

Iceland outlets across the country have also introduced reserved time slots to give the vulnerable and the elderly a chance to shop in store.

Read more: We visited London Colney Sainsbury's...and this is what we saw (or didn't see)