CHRISTMAS shoppers were stopped in their tracks by a Christmas flash mob at a city supermarket.

The singers from Worcester Operatic and Dramatic Society (WODS) which is best known for musical theatre productions at Worcester's Swan Theatre, chose the less conventional venue for its latest performance.

Unsuspecting customers at Asda Supermarket, in St Martin's Gate, became spontaneous audience members on Saturday afternoon when 15 enthusiastic singers emerged from the fruit and veg section and surrounding aisles, all dressed in festive garb, for the surprise performance of Mariah Carey's popular festive hit, All I Want for Christmas Is You.

For the WODS version of the song soloist Lou Ford stepped up with a soulful rendition of the melody and braved some initial curious stares.

After wowing the crowd she was joined by other participants who launched into multi-part harmonies arranged by local singing teacher Paul Bellamy and accompanying movements choreographed by Rachel Price.

The performers represented a broad sample of the WODS membership, ranging in age from 16 to 83-years-old.

Flash mob co-organiser Jennifer Chow said: "We are very grateful to John Horsley, the community champion at Asda Worcester, along with all other Asda staff members who were so receptive to our visiting at relatively short notice during a busy shopping day.

"We wanted to bring a bit of Christmas cheer to the community and hope our performance was a welcome diversion."

WODS membership secretary Chris Holloway said there was a lot of positive feedback from shoppers, one joking it was a bit different than a normal weekly shop.

Musical director Neil Waghorn added: "This has been such a fun process right from the start and the performance was the perfect ending to it all."

The performance was part of WODS preparation for their spring show, Stephen Sondheim's fairy tale mashup Into the Woods, which will run at the Swan Theatre from April 17 to 21.

For more on WODS visit the wods1892 page on Facebook.