Mum and daughter in 'full blown panic mode' as they scream for help after being locked in Sports Direct car park

"As we went to drive out we were completely locked in"

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An mum and daughter "went into full blown panic mode" as they screamed for help after reportedly being locked in a Sports Direct car park.

Nadine Daniels desperately started banging on the shutters in the hope someone would hear her during the incident at the multi-storey car park in Southport. The 37-year-old had travelled to the town on Wednesday (August 2) with her husband Ben, 37, their three-year-old son and 16-year-old daughter who has autism.

After doing some shopping at Sports Direct and and surrounding stores they returned to the Tulketh Street. However it wasn't until they'd paid for their parking and went to leave the car park at 6pm that Nadine said they found the barrier was down and they were locked inside.

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A sign at the main entrance to the car park states it should close at 9.30pm on Monday-Thursday - more than three hours after the family found it locked.

Nadine, from Formby, told ECHO: "It's not even the fact they locked our car in, they locked us inside the car park with my children - that's what panicked us. I didn't see any signs to say it was shutting at 6pm, all the big signs say it shuts at half 9 Monday-Friday.

"Apparently there's a sign on one of the doors in the stairwell but we didn't use the stairs, we used the lift."

"We went upstairs in the lift and there were two members of staff from Sports Direct. They were stood by the lift area and we were trying to put our registration into the parking machine and it wouldn't find it.

"I said 'it won't find out reg'. The [staff member] said 'don't worry if you get a ticket bring your receipt into store and we'll sort it out. They never said anything about the car park being locked.

"As we went to drive out we were completely locked in."

Nadine said: "My daughter has autism. She went into full blown panic mode thinking we were going to be stuck in there all night.

"I was screaming 'help we're stuck in the car park' I was banging on the shutters - obviously no one could hear me. My husband went upstairs where we'd just spoken to staff and they were gone."

Thankfully, Nadine said she managed to flag down a woman who was walking past the car park at the time and alerted staff in the gym next door.

She added: "Luckily that woman walked past at that time. Luckily we got out. I kept thinking what if you were a disabled person on your own and didn't have a phone, you'd have no way of getting out."

The ECHO has approached Sports Direct for comment.