IKEA customers flee as authorities rush to trap hundreds inside store

An IKEA store was sent into lockdown after a positive Covid case was detected, causing a rush of shoppers to race for the exits before they became locked inside and transported to quarantine.

Footage taken over the weekend at an IKEA in central Shanghai started circulating on Chinese social media.

In the video, people were seen running through the store's doors before they were forcefully shut. People then managed to burst through the doors and tried to escape.

While people panicked, an announcement blared over the sound system, saying the mall was being locked down due to Covid contact tracing, Reuters reported.

"A few hundred Shanghainese would never have thought of the price to pay to go to IKEA Xujiahui in #Shanghai," Zhulin Zhang said on Twitter.

"They can no longer return home, but have been transferred to a containment centre because a positive case has been detected in the store."

People who were in the store will undergo two days of quarantine followed by two days of monitoring.

The store will be reopened if no further Covid cases are identified, Shanghai Daily's SHINE reported.

China's most populous city to reopen

Shanghai, China's financial hub, will reopen all schools on September 1, following months of closures caused by Covid-19.

All teachers in the city will be required to take a Covid test every day before leaving the school's campus.

The Shanghai Municipal Education Commission said teachers and students will be required to carry out 14 days of "self-health management" ahead of the reopening, Reuters reported.

Following a two-month lockdown in mid-March, all schools were closed to combat a Covid outbreak. Some students were allowed to return to school in June, while the majority studied from home.

China has committed to a Covid-zero policy. To achieve this, all positive cases and their close contacts must undergo quarantine.

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Shanghai recently extended its requirement of free weekly Covid testing until the end of September. People who neglect to get tested every seven days will be assigned a yellow code on the city's health code system.

A yellow code means people are restricted from accessing public venues.

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