Oxford Circus incident: Olly Murs defends Tweets mistakenly claiming 'gunshots' in Selfridges

Piers Morgan said the singer 'stirred extra needless panic by tweeting false information'

Olly Murs has defended himself after claiming on Twitter he heard gunfire while shopping in luxury department store Selfridges on Oxford Street.

When the singer sent the social media message the area was on lockdown, the Met Police having issued a major terror alert after hundreds of people began evacuating the nearby tube station.

“F**k everyone get out of Selfridges now gun shots!! I’m inside,” Tweeted Murs. “Really not sure what’s happened! I’m in the back office... but people screaming and running towards exits!”

Soon after, Murs confirmed he had evacuated the building and had entered a nearby hotel. “So many different stories flying around just hope everyone is safe,” he added.

After an initial panic and wide-spread reports of gunshots at the scene, the Met Police issued a statement saying “no evidence of any shots fired or any suspects were located by police.”

Passengers who were on the tube platform which initiated the self-evacuation claim the panic was started by a fight between two men, describing how the evacuation order was prompted by a member of the public pushing an emergency button.

After Selfridges said their store was “evacuated today as a precautionary measure”, Piers Morgan criticised Murs for the Tweets, writing: “Stop tweeting mate. Nothing happened.”

The singer responded: “Listen Piers! I was shopping and then all of sudden the whole place went mad, I mean crazy people running & screaming towards exits.

“We found a small office to hide to which loads of staff and people were saying there was shots fired. If you was there you’d have understood mate."

Morgan then responded to Murs saying the singer “stirred extra needless panic by tweeting false information” and should be more careful about what messages he posts.

“No you listen Piers,” Murs wrote back, “your comments are unfair mate. It’s easy to say now it was nothing but in a state of shock and panic I was trying to make people aware of what was happening. Which I was lend to believe by staff and customers that someone was shooting.”

He added: “Despite what actually happened I’m so glad it was nothing serious and I hope everyone got home safely.”

Both Oxford Circus and Bond Street station were closed during the alert but have since been reopened, with events including the Royal Variety Performance at the nearby London Palladium going ahead as planned.