Olly Murs hints at 'cover up' over Oxford Street terror scare fiasco
The singer stands by his claims that shots were fired while he was hiding in Selfridges on Black Friday 2017, despite the police finding no evidence of an attack
Olly Murs has spoken out for the first time since the terror scare on London's Oxford Street last November, insisting that gun shots were fired and even hinting at a possible cover-up.
The singer was ridiculed after he sent a series of panicked tweets from inside Selfridges saying that there had been “gun shots” and telling everyone to “get out of Selfridges now”.
However, a statement from the Met Police at the time said: “No casualties, evidence of any shots fired or any suspects were located by police."
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Murs has now broken his silence on the subject, telling The Sun: “Whether they were shooting into the air, or whatever, something happened that day. Whether it was covered up, I don’t know.”
He added: “It’s all a bit murky.”
Murs explained that he had been in the department store buying his aunt a massage chair when shoppers descended into a mass panic.
“One minute I’m sitting there and this guy’s saying, ‘If you press this button you get a massage’ — the next I’m getting thrown against a wall,” he said.
“And then there’s people screaming and running towards exits and I’m thinking, ‘What the f***?’
“I ran for my life thinking, ‘Someone’s upstairs shooting.’ The noise of people screaming, it was terrifying.”
Murs and a group of shoppers hid in a back office, where people told him they had heard gun shots being fired.
“The manager was in there, other senior people,” he said. “This woman said, ‘Someone was up there shooting, I could see him, in the beauty aisle he had a gun.’
“This girl was saying, ‘Don’t tell me I’m lying, I saw this guy with my own eyes.’ Whether he shot someone or was shooting in the air — well, obviously he didn’t shoot anyone — but someone saw something.”
Murs, who was publicly accused of being irresponsible by Piers Morgan at the time, revealed that he is still mocked on Twitter every day.
The Met Police’s full statement at the time said: “At 4:38pm police started to receive numerous 999 calls within a short space of time reporting shots fired in a number of locations on Oxford Street and at Oxford Circus underground station.
“Given the nature of the information received, the Met responded in line with our existing operation as if the incident was terrorism, including the deployment of armed officers.
“Officers working with colleagues from British Transport Police carried out an urgent search of the area. No casualties, evidence of any shots fired or any suspects were located by police.”
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