SHOPPERS in Oxford's Cornmarket Street watched in amazement as more than 60 students staged a mass pillow fight yesterday.

The event was one of the city's first "flash mobs", which started in the United States in 2003.

Students from Oxford Brookes University and Oxford University were alerted on a website and turned up to cause pillow pandemonium at lunchtime yesterday.

The "fight" began after someone blew a whistle and lasted more than a minute, before the mob dispersed.

No-one was hurt in the stunt, no-one was arrested, and although shoppers were forced to move out of the way, they were not at all offended.

"I thought it was good entertainment," said one woman shopper, who stopped to watch.

James Wheatley, 19, a business and marketing student at Oxford Brookes, said: "It was just a bit of fun. It's peaceful enough and we made sure we didn't hit anyone who wasn't involved."

His friend, India Turner-Lees, 19, a media student at Oxford Brookes, added: "I came along because it sounded great fun.

"I've got a younger brother but I've never had a pillow fight before. It hurt a bit and I lost my scarf as well."

Pete Lewis, 20, a music student at Oxford Brookes, said: "It was a harmless pillow fight and it didn't cause any disruption.

"This kind of thing is quite well known in America and there was a similar event at Exeter University recently."

A 23-year-old computer programmer, who asked not to be named, said: "I work nine to five every day and I knew this would be good fun."

Rose Pardo-Roques, 22, who studies performing arts at Oxford Brookes, said: "I can write about this for my art in the community module because it's such a spontaneous event," she said.

The first flash mobs were organised in Manhattan, New York, in 2003. In one event, hundreds of people invaded a shoe shop, pretending to be tourists on a bus trip.