Police urge people to stop calling them about KFC chicken shortage

Met calls for end to fowl play

The police are urging the public to stop calling in to report that KFC has run out of chicken.

The national “KFC crisis” has seen over half of the fast food chain’s 900 UK outlets close across the country.

Last week KFC changed its delivery contract to DHL, which blamed “operational issues” for its failure to deliver the chickens.

But the shortage has apparently seen the public resort to calling the emergency services.

Tower Hamlets Metropolitan Police Service tweeted: “Please do not contact us about the #KFCCrisis - it is not a police matter if your favourite eatery is not serving the menu that you desire.”

On Tuesday afternoon KFC said over half their restaurants were open and their teams were “working flat out to open the rest”.

A long queue of lorries delivering supplies to the DHL warehouse in Rugby, near Coventry, was seen today as drivers waited up to 10 hours for the goods to be unloaded.

In a statement, KFC said: “We anticipate the number of closures will reduce today [Tuesday] and over the coming days as our teams work flat-out all hours to clear the backlog.

“Each day more deliveries are being made. However, we expect the disruption to some restaurants to continue over the remainder of the week, meaning some will be closed and others operating with a reduced menu or shortened hours.”

DHL has apologised for the "inconvenience and disappointment caused to KFC and their customers".

The company's John Boulter said: “The reasons for this unforeseen interruption of this complex service are being worked on with a goal to return to normal service levels as soon as possible.”

In the meantime, KFC has set up an online service where those who cannot wait for fried chicken can find the nearest branch that remains open.