Homebase has paid compensation to a customer after a tin of paint she was buying exploded at the checkout.
Alison Smedley had chosen the red paint at Homebase's Aylesbury Broadfield store to renovate her doorstep. But as she was paying for it the tin exploded, covering her coat, shoes and purse in the paint.
"I jumped when I heard the noise because it was so loud," Mrs Smedley told the Bucks Herald. "Everyone around the checkouts was shocked. Then to my horror I saw red liquid on the floor and on my clothes. I thought it was blood at first and I panicked."
She said that after the store manager had tried unsuccessfully to remove the paint from Mrs Smedley's clothes he had asked her to get the coat dry cleaned and send him the bill.
However, when the paint did not come out, forcing Mrs Smedley to pay £200 to buy new clothing, the manager reportedly refused to pay up.
Now, Homebase has apologised and reimbursed its customer. A spokesman said: "Homebase would like to sincerely apologise to Ms Smedley for the incident that occurred in our Aylesbury Broadfield store.
"As a gesture of goodwill we would like to reimburse the cost of both her dry cleaning bill and a new set of clothing."