A store opening in Tokyo sparked chaos after thousands turned up to snap up cheap clothes.

The chance to buy cut-price fashion at Japan’s first ever H&M shop proved irresistible to residents of one of the most expensive cities in the world.

Streets around the store, right in the heart of the glitzy Ginza district, remained crowded for hours yesterday as shoppers kept pouring in.

Chaos: Thousands wait to get in the store in the glitzy Ginza district

Police were called in to control the queuing hordes desperate for bargains.

The Swedish retailer, in a bid to woo a notoriously expensive consumer market, is offering the same prices for fashionable items as in Europe and the U.S.

Bargains like 299 yen £1.50) jangling earrings, 5,490 yen (£28.90) high-heels and colorful 3,990 yen (£21) are clearly a big draw in Tokyo.

The store’s neighbours are upscale European designer boutiques like Chanel, Christian Dior and Giorgio Armani.

Nearby department stores sell relatively more affordable jewelry and clothing.

But even those are marked easily 10 times the prices at H&M, widely known as a pioneer in cheap but chic fashion.

Freebie: A store worker gives out stickers with the H&M logo

‘Fashion and quality at the best prices. It’s the balance of those three different elements that we bring to the Japanese consumer,’ Christine Edman, who heads H&M’s Japan operations, said.

‘What’s trendy in New York and Paris is going to be trendy in Japan as well.’

In the line outside the shop, investment banker Hitomi Kimura, 28, simply said: ‘I love it. I don’t want to have to spend lots money on just casual fun clothes.’

Such collaborations in the past, such as those with Madonna and English designer Stella McCartney, have been big draws.

Next year, two more H&M stores will open in Japan.

H&M has 800 suppliers, mass produces and runs its own stores, eliminating middlemen, to keep prices down.

Although media response has been positive so far in Japan, the real test is only starting, said Margareta van den Bosch, creative adviser for H&M.

‘We don’t know really until we see with the customers,’ she said.