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Stoughton IKEA Forced To Close Due To Sewage Back Up

STOUGHTON (CBS) -- It was chaos for shoppers at the IKEA in Stoughton Saturday, and gridlock on the roads leading to and from the store. The IKEA had to be evacuated and the store closed because of a sewer back up.

"It is still a bit of a challenge. We had over 20,000 people in the building, so it took a little while to get them cleared out," said Store Manager Megan Williams. "But we did everything safely and quickly and everybody got out fine.

Williams said the problem was a blocked sewer line which caused all of the drains in the store to block up and leaked water onto the floor.

"The health and safety of our customers and coworkers are what's important and we wanted to make sure we got everybody out," Williams said.

Store management said nobody was hurt, but back out on the roads holiday shopping plans were dashed. Some drivers around the store were backed up for a half hour.

The store closed for rest of Saturday, but the they hope to be back up and running tomorrow.

"It was unfortunate timing, but we'll be sure to be open tomorrow and everyone who was here today can certainly come back tomorrow," Williams said.

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