Thousands of shoppers have descended on Norwich city centre for the Boxing Day sales, with some especially eager bargain-hunters queueing for hours before the stores opened.

Most of the big national chains in Norwich flung open their doors with many slashing prices by 50pc.

Next in Hayhill opened its doors at 6am and a spokesman said about 1,200 people were already queuing up to grab a bargain.

'The first person in the queue was a lady who started queuing about five-and-a-half hours before we opened, at about 12.30pm,' a spokesman said.

Debenhams and Primark in Norwich were also reporting good sales with increased footfall expected tomorrow.

And bargain-hunters laden with heavy shopping bags admitted to spending hundreds of pounds in the sales, despite the average Briton forking out more money each year for Christmas.

Some of the independent businesses in Norwich were also open and offering sales, including Elements menswear store in Lower Goat Lane.

Its owner David Finlay was the original chairman of the Norwich Lanes group of independent and specialist shops in the city. He said that online sales at his store had doubled in the last year, from 10pc to 20pc of overall turnover.

He said: 'Christmas has been pretty good too, about 10pc up on last year. We've done well on tweed jackets, and footwear sales have been strong.'

Robin Norton, a director at clothes stores Catfish and Dogfish, also in Norwich Lanes, said Christmas had been 'all right', but his store has been busy today.