Shocking moment a woman’s niqab is ripped off as teen girls batter each other in packed Meadowhall shopping centre in front of horrified shoppers

THIS is the moment a mass brawl breaks out in front of horrified customers at one of the UK's biggest shopping centres.

The brutal attack erupted outside an O2 store at Meadowhall in Sheffield at around 8pm on Wednesday and was filmed by a stunned shopper from the floor above.

Two groups of women had to be separated by members of the public as punches began to fly and screams pierced the air.

Not a single security guard was seen during the ugly scenes, which lasted nearly two minutes.

At one point, a woman appeared to punch another woman in the face and tore off her niqab.

Terrified children stood and watched as another woman was punched and dragged to the floor by her hair.

The disturbing footage - viewed more than 35,000 times on Facebook - shows a woman's niqab falling to the floor after she is savagely beaten.

Shoppers immediately get between them but the attacker then rushes towards another woman and grabs her by the hair.

She holds her while a friend appears to punch her. The first woman then hurls the victim to the ground.

The beaten woman gets back to her feet and rushes towards them but several brave shoppers step in to break it up.

Two of the women are led away by a friend but one of them suddenly turns back and launches at the crowd.

She has to be restrained by several men and a female shop assistant.

A young boy is seen putting his arm around one of the women, pleading with her to stop and the group finally leaves.

Meadowhall's security response was heavily criticised by customers who questioned how they would respond in the event of a terrorist attack.

Alicia Lovely wrote on the shopping centre's Facebook page: "Where are security? Seriously? After everything that has been going off in this country recently, we are on a critical terror attack alert and Meadowhall is a very high risk place for something like this to happen and security can not even make an appearance to sort out something like this?"

Rachel Revitt commented: "I was also there and can agree that no security were present, not until after the fight had dispersed anyway. Due to recent events I feel less secure at Meadowhall should anything happen."

Ben Whomersley added: "My eight-year-old girl was really scared and wanting to know what was happening, as there was loads of shouting and swearing!! I saw shop assistants trying to break it up for a while and still no security arrived."

Meadowhall responded to shoppers' concerns on Facebook, saying: "To reassure you, our security team were on the scene within seconds of being made aware. This is now a police matter."

Meadowhall is one of the largest indoor shopping centres in the UK. It hosts 230 stores and has an annual footfall of around 25 million.

A spokeswoman for South Yorkshire Police said: "Officers are investigating following a reported altercation at Meadowhall shopping centre yesterday evening.

"Police were called at around 8pm after it was reported that two teenage girls were involved in a fight.

"One of the girls sustained minor injuries as a result of the incident. Officers attended within minutes and have already spoken to a number of witnesses as they continue with their enquiries."

Anyone with information is urged to contact police on 101 quoting incident number 1184 of June 21.