The Stockholm department store which was hit in a terror attack on Friday (7 April) has been forced to apologise after it announced a "damaged goods" sale immediately after the incident.

Ahlens caught fire after a hijacked beer lorry smashed into its entrance, killing four people in its path and injuring 15 others.

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The smoke from the attack damaged a number of goods inside and in an email to its customers, the shop announced it would "begin a sale of smoke-damaged products".

However, immediately after the announcement was made, Ahlens was inundated with angry messages stating it was "disgraceful" that it was attempting to profit from the terror attack.

In a statement on its Facebook page, Ahlens said: "We would ask our customers to apologise for a bad decision.

"Yesterday, we sent an email to our customers where we informed about our plan to open Ahlens today [9 April] with information on the reduced price of damaged goods.

"Driven out of a desire to open as fast as possible, we went out with the email top open on Sunday, but to open so fast was only feasible with products that were damaged.

"We are deeply unhappy both over the decision and over the email. We were pressed and acted too fast in a situation that is awful and surreal for us all."

The store said the driving force behind the idea was not letting the evil forces of terrorism dictate the lives of ordinary people.

It added that the decision was never to do with making money and has postponed its opening till Tuesday (11 April) so staff can come to terms with what has happened.

"We want to continue to direct our thoughts to the victims and their loved ones," the statement ended.

The British citizen killed in the attack has been named as Chris Bevington. Swedish police confirmed that two Swedes and a Belgian national were also killed.