THERE was a disappointing end to Winchester's first attempt at a new youth craze yesterday.

Only a handful of young people turned up to the "flash mobbing" event, despite promotional posters and flyers being plastered across the city.

The craze involves people simultaneously descending on an area and doing something unusual before dispersing.

All the notices told people was that they should gather in the Cathedral Green at noon, stand there in silence and then leave.

But only about 25 people, mostly students, bothered to participate and even they left after a few minutes, looking bemused.

Evan Jones, 20, a student from Wavell Way in Winchester, said: "We'd heard it was happening so a group of us just thought it would be interesting to take part.

"To be honest, now that we've turned up, I guess the reality of this particular flash mobbing was that the idea was probably better than the reality."

The concept of flash mobbing took off in the USA and first arrived in Britain last August when a crowd flocked to a furniture shop off Tottenham Court Road in London, sat down for a few minutes and uttered the words "Oh wow, what a sofa!" before dispersing.