Thousands of eager customers scrambled to a mall in China on its first day of iPhone 13 sales on September 24.

Footage shows swarms of mallgoers running to climb up escalators and buy Apple’s latest flagship phone at the Saige Shopping Center in Xi’an, Shaanxi province.

A customer who also queued up at the mall said: ‘The shop isn’t an Apple store but they’re an Apple authorised reseller. They will only sell 500 units of the iPhone 13.’

‘I saw people were running, but there are a lot of people who probably won’t get one. It was on a first-come, first-serve basis.’

He added that police officers came to ensure security at the mall.

Due to safety reasons, however, the shop had reportedly delayed the sale of the iPhone 13. Customers were told to come back the following day after being informed of limited stocks at the store branch, which was selling only 190 units of the mobile phone.

Apple phones have remained in high demand in China despite local brands like Huawei and Xiaomi providing competitive alternatives.

Colour variations for the new iPhone sold out within ten minutes, according to a report by Global Times. Stocks were also sold out on some e-commerce platforms come Saturday morning.

The iPhone 13 in China is priced at 5,199 RMB (around 804 USD) for the Mini version, 5,999 RMB (around 928 USD) for the regular version, and 7,999 RMB (around 1238 USD) for the Pro version.