A squirrel caused chaos, scampering around a store for more than an hour hiding in clothes and jumping over toys.

Three boys tried to help staff at the Westgate department store, Chipping Norton, trap the animal before it was eventually caught and put outside.

Richard Eldridge, 12, of Albion Street, was riding up the escalator in the nearby Co-op with his friends, Tom Keen and Lee Stanovic, when the squirrel ran over his head.

He said: "Suddenly this thing just jumped over my head and shot down the other side. It then went into the clothes shop and was running around in there."

They used a quilt, a blanket and a basket to try and catch it as it went through the clothes and other items before they trapped it in a corner when it escaped again.

It managed to avoid being caught behind boxes, in a basket and under a bedbut still ran away before they left it to calm down and rescued it.

Richard said: "It was really funny. It went into the china and all the staff were going 'Oh, no'. Luckily it didn't smash anything. Everything was on the floor."

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