Toilet papers looing the Land Down Under has reached new heights. A coronavirus panic client has been tasered with the aid of police in a grocery store after an argument broke out over tissue paper has circulated on social media.
According to news.com.au, a 50-year-old guy went to a supermarket inside the New South Wales city of Tamworth, where the toilet paper delivers was dwindling amid panic buying because of the coronavirus.
Man threw boxes of toilet tissues to female staff
"Police were told the man became aggressive over stock unavailability and threw boxes of tissues at a female staff member and walked off," New South Wales police said in a statement.
When a lady customer approached the consumer, he allegedly grabbed her across the throat before she was helped by another shopper. No injuries have been reported.
The argument was reportedly over bathroom paper, which has become a kind after and an increasing number of an uncommon commodity because of coronavirus fears.
Channel News Asia added the unhinged man then stormed off to another store, the Tamworth Shoppingworld, in which law enforcement officials tasered him at some point of conflict wherein he put one of the officials in a headlock and searched for a gun.
Authorities said the suspect was taken to Tamworth Police Station after police deployed a taser to affect the person's arrest.
The suspect was charged with two counts of assault for resisting an officer in the execution of duty and assaulting an officer in the line of responsibility.
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Coronavirus sparks lavatory paper panic buying
Scarcity of rest room paper blamed on panic buying in Australia, in which greater than 50 people had been confirmed to be infected with the coronavirus, such as an 8-month-old toddler in Adelaide, Agence France-Presse reported.
In a bid to fight the toilet paper shortage, Coles and Woolworths have both imposed limits on how many packets clients could buy.
Coles had previously said it would no longer impose restrictions. However, the supermarket updated its position to align with Woolworths.
Both grocery store chains are restricting customers to four packets per in-store and online purchases to ensure all buyers have access to toilet papers.
"This [decision] will help us maintain stock levels in stores while our suppliers increase local production, and our distribution centers increase deliveries," Coles said.
You know who can’t 'panic buy' and stockpile goods?
People on low incomes, living week to week on little cash.
Runs on essential items hurt people in poverty.
Please stop and think about others before you empty out the supermarket.#coronavirusaustralia #corona #panicbuying pic.twitter.com/pxTsDmXrO2 — VCOSS (@VCOSS) March 4, 2020
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Most cases in Australia comes from other places
Australia's chief medical officer Brendan Murphy says most instances in Australia are folks who had traveled from other affected international locations. He claimed there is only "limited community transmission" in NSW.
Prof Murphy said the authorities are reassuring people that purchasing all of the toilet papers from the shelves of supermarkets isn't a sensible thing to do at this time.
While noting that Australia has a well-prepared health system, Murphy said even the best-prepared health systems can face a challenge if there has large outbreaks
