LONDON (Dispatches) - More fighting has broken out on Britain’s ‘Wild West’ petrol forecourts as drivers threw punches and even pulled knives as violent rows broke out in the long queues for fuel.
But Transport Secretary Grant Shapps has insisted there are “tentative” signs the crisis will ease this week as long as panic-buying subsides, The Daily Mail reported.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been urged to stop “hiding away” and address the nation as his own MPs slammed his decision not to bring in soldiers to deliver fuel immediately to “regain public confidence” as petrol stations started rationing fuel sales at £30.
With no sign of the PM, Shapps has claimed the pressure on filling stations is beginning to ease and insisted the Army would remain on standby despite admitting the queues will not disappear yet.
“There are now the first very tentative signs of stabilization in forecourt storage which won’t be reflected in the queues as yet,” he said in a pooled TV clip.
He added, “But it is the first time that we have seen more petrol actually in the petrol stations. The sooner we can all return to our normal buying habits, the sooner the situation will return to normal.”
As one driver was seen filling mineral water bottles with petrol, he stated, “No more water bottles at petrol stations: it’s dangerous and not helpful.”
Britain’s fuel crisis shows no sign of abating as drivers again queued through the night and new video has emerged of two men punching and kicking each other across a London Shell station in a row about whose turn it was to fill up.
Amid widespread scenes of enormous queueing across Britain’s forecourts, footage emerged of a man holding what appears to be a knife shouting at a driver outside a petrol station in Welling, south east London.