Saudi Arabia's Al-Baik Restaurant was forced to close down its new branch in the north-central Saudi city of Buraidah in the Al-Qassim region just four hours after it opened due to the large size of the crowd that had gathered at its opening.
The restaurant, famous for selling broasted chicken and shrimp with a variety of sauces, denied initial reports that said the new branch was damaged after a huge crowd of thousands of customers queued to buy their iftar meals.
"There is no truth in the news that damage had taken place during the opening of Al-Baik in Al-Qassim, and we'd like to clarify that we closed it down to maintain the safety of our customers," the restaurant's official account tweeted early Thursday.
The restaurant thanked police officers and civil defense personnel who were called in to help control the crowd.
There is a video trending on Twitter that users are claiming shows customers racing to enter Al-Baik's new branch, however it is unclear if this is actually of the incident this week.
A day earlier, the popular local chain had announced it would hire 70 new graduates to work at the new branch.
The chain has more than 50 branches across Saudi Arabia, including 40 in Jeddah.