A FAMILY say they were ‘petrified’ when a lift malfunctioned in Primark at the new Westgate Centre just two days after it opened.

Mum-of-three Jody Sero was shopping in the new centre on Thursday last week and tried to travel up from the ground floor to the children’s department on the first floor.

The 34-year-old has described being inside the lift when it ‘jolted’ and then she said ‘it felt like we were being dropped’.

This happened three times, according to Mrs Sero, and the family were stuck with other shoppers for up to ten minutes before they managed to get out on the ground floor. She said that the store’s manager had confirmed the lift had been malfunctioning since the launch of the shopping’s centre on October 24.

Mrs Sero was with her five-year-old son Joshua and daughters Olivia and Amelia, 10 and 12 respectively, at the time.

The Bicester-based cook said: “I don’t think it should have been opened if it was faulty.

“It petrified my five-year-old, he’s told me he will never go in a lift again.

“The jolt was enough to wobble us off our feet.

“I wanted to scream but I had to keep calm for the children.

“We all hugged when we got out.

“I don’t want anybody else to go through it.”

The grand opening of Westgate has so far run relatively smoothly, despite a last-minute rush to get it finished on time.

Shoppers have reacted largely positively since the £440m centre opened a week ago.

The 40,000 square foot Primark is one of the flagship stores of the new centre alongside department store John Lewis.

Primark features women’s, men’s and children’s clothing and footwear, accessories, lingerie, beauty and homeware.

Primark offered Mrs Sero a gift voucher as a gesture of apology and the store is understood to be looking into their in-store facilities as a priority.

Nick Reading, a Primark spokesman, said the lift was returned to service later the same day.

He said: “We can confirm a technical fault occurred with a lift at our Oxford Westgate store.

“At no time was there any danger to the customers involved.

“We thank them for their patience.”

Ellie Tuck, a spokeswoman for Westgate, said that it was unable to comment on incidents that happen within a sepcific shop.