A supermarket was evacuated as police foiled a suspected drag race after "souped up" cars were seen speeding round the busy car park.

The Sainsbury’s at Colney Fields Shopping Centre in London Colney was forced to close early and customers were asked to leave after almost 50 cars gathered in the car park just after 6pm on Saturday.

Witnesses said drivers were revving their engines and driving round the car park at speed, potentially putting shoppers in danger.

St Albans District Councillor Jacob Quagliozzi said: "I had popped down to Sainsbury’s to do some shopping about eight o’clock on Saturday night and whilst I was in there, customers were told to leave the shop.

"Most people who had been asked to leave asked a member of staff [what was going on]. Members of staff explained that a car event was about to happen outside and they wanted to get people out and clear the car park as quickly as they could.

"When I got out, there were about 100, as a minimum, youngish people and there were more cars arriving every couple of minutes.

"There were people testing their cars, revving their engines and driving round the car park at speed.

"The thing that concerns me was the driving round the car park at speed while people still thought the shop was open."

A shopper tweeted: "How do they get away with racing in the car park!?"

The Labour representative added: "There was a broad spectrum of cars. There was everything from a modified Jaguar to an old Golf, quite a lot of souped up vehicles, loud engines and a lot of revving.

"It was the atmosphere of a meet up at a car show but a bit more informal.

"Most people were gathering around individual cars and looking at other people’s cars."

However, Hertfordshire Constabulary confirmed no offences were committed after they were called at 6.15pm.

Natalie Dearman, spokesman for Hertfordshire Constabulary said: "There was a concern there were a number of cars in the area.

"Police attended and there were vehicles leaving as they were arriving and basically, there was no anti-social behaviour or racing and police continued to patrol the area in the evening."

Councillor Quagliozzi told the Review that number plate recognition and gates to the car park had been installed by the retail giants after a similar incident about 18 months ago.

Sainsbury’s Rebecca Young said: "We closed the store briefly on Saturday evening following advice from the police.

"We have CCTV in place and work closely with the police to prevent this type of behaviour, but we’d like to apologise to customers for the inconvenience on Saturday."