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Sheffield flash-mob frozen to the spot - PICTURES
BEMUSED shoppers did a double take when 1,000 people suddenly stood absolutely still for five minutes in Sheffield Peace Gardens.
Crowds of people flocked to the city's first ever flash-mob 'freeze' event which happened at the stroke of 12 noon on Saturday.
Hundreds of people stopped dead in their tracks - some in strange poses and some lying on the ground - before breaking up and dispersing as planned.
The phenomenon of flash-mobbing sees people meet in the same location, do something unusual, and then leave.
Some people at the Sheffield event turned up in coach parties and City Centre Ambassadors had been warned to expect up to 4,000 visitors although the figure was far less on the actual day.
Freeze events, which have seen thousands of people gather in open spaces in London, Paris and New York, are commonly organised through social networking internet sites such as Facebook and MySpace.
The Peace Gardens event, which was organised through Facebook, had been dubbed The Day Sheffield Stood Still.
Organiser Kevin Hailes, aged 19, is a graphic design student from Sheffield Hallam University and was first inspired to organise a flash-mob after seeing videos of similar gatherings on Channel 4.
"I decided to set up the Sheffield group on Facebook to see what happened, but I didn't think it would grow to this size," he said.
"Hopefully this beat the London one at Trafalgar Square which had 1,000 people."
Flash-mobbing is thought to have started in 2003, in Macy's department store in New York, where hundreds of people gathered in the rug department. Since then its popularity has grown with flash-mobbers staging events around the globe.
Not all the events involve people standing still. Previously, those taking part have chosen to wear the same colour, sing the same song, or lie flat on the ground after the count of three.
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Weather for Sheffield
Wednesday 23 May 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 13 C to 24 C
Wind Speed: 8 mph
Wind direction: East
Tomorrow
Cloudy
Temperature: 12 C to 24 C
Wind Speed: 10 mph
Wind direction: North east
