H&M Shutters South Africa Stores After Protests

The clothing retailer H&M shuttered its stores in South Africa after protesters flooded several locations and destroyed merchandise, according to several reports.

CNN reports that the protesters were demonstrating against H&M’s ad depicting a black child wearing a sweatshirt that read “coolest monkey in the jungle” that was featured on the British version of the clothing retailer’s website.

Social media users shared multiple videos and images of protesters ransacking the stores, throwing merchandise on the ground, and tipping over security sensors.

The Swedish retailer released a statement saying that the company is “aware of the recent events” at their South African stores and has “temporarily” shuttered all stores located in the country.

“None of our staff or customers have been injured,” H&M said. “We continue to monitor the situation closely and will open the stores as soon as the situation is safe again.”

The company’s website shows that H&M has 17 stores in South Africa.

The ad, which has now been removed from the website, caused controversy this week after the store promoted it on social media.

NBA star LeBron James publicly criticized the store, and musicians The Weeknd and G-Eazy severed business ties with the company in response to the ad.

H&M issued an initial statement Monday apologizing to those they “may have offended,” and tweeted out an additional statement Tuesday stating that the company would “investigate” the incident.

H&M sent out an updated statement Saturday in light of the protests:

“We strongly believe that racism and bias in any shape or form, deliberate or accidental, are simply unacceptable,” the statement reads. “We stress that our wonderful store staff had nothing to do with our poorly judged product and image.”