Last updated at 10:53, Tuesday, 19 February 2013

HUNDREDS of young people brought Barrow town centre to a standstill on Saturday with an impromptu dance routine.

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Members of the public in Market Square looked on in surprise as a ‘flash mob’ descended in colourful costumes for the social-media fuelled event.

Around 200 people took part in the event, where dancers did a Harlem Shake.

The shake, which was created in New York in the 1980s, is expected to replace Gangnam Style as the new dance craze and has already become an internet sensation.

It starts off slowly and subtly, with one person showing off a move or two, then the whole crowd joins in.

The event was led by Nathan Lippitt, 20, who spread word of the flash mob plan on social networking sites at the end of last week and said he was taken aback by the number of people who answered the call to take part.

He said: “I was watching the news and saw a video of the dance and saw it was going viral on the internet.

“I saw somebody doing it in a town centre and thought ‘I’ll organise one in Barrow’. I planned it on the Friday and lots of people turned up, it was crazy.”

The event came in for some criticism on social media sites, some saying it was creating a nuisance, but Mr Lippitt responded that it was all in good fun.

Some members of the energetic crowd came dressed for the event, donning onesies and animal costumes.

Onlookers peered down from the Forum car park as music belted out from two vans while PCSOs made sure everything was kept in check.

• A ‘flash mob’ is defined as a group of people who assemble suddenly in a public place, perform an unusual and seemingly pointless act for a brief time, then quickly disperse, often for the purposes of entertainment, satire, and artistic expression.

First published at 16:02, Monday, 18 February 2013
Published by http://www.nwemail.co.uk