An 89 year old woman has won her battle for compensation with a supermarket after she slipped and fell in one of its stores.

Annie Curran from Perth, Scotland, slipped on washing up liquid which had been spilled on the floor of her local Safeway supermarket. She was unable to get up as she broke her arm in the fall and was left stranded in the pool of gel for several minutes. Staff who rushed to her aid also skidded on the gel and fell.

Paramedics who later arrived at the store also had to wait for the spillage to be cleaned up before attending to Mrs Curran over fears they too would fall. This meant she was left longer on the floor without medical attention.

The accident which happened on 4 July 1999, in the household section of the Perth branch of the supermarket chain, has left Mrs Curran with depleted mobility and has made her less sure on her feet than she had been previously.

Mrs Curran who was originally believed to have filed a claim for £6,500 has now reached an out-of-court settlement with the Middlesex-based supermarket. She declined to comment on the terms of the agreement which is thought to be in the region of £5,000, but was said to be delighted with the outcome.

Mrs Curran had this to say: “I just went into the shop on a Sunday afternoon to get some shopping and I was going down one of the aisles when I fell flat on my back. Somebody had spilled something and they hadn’t cleaned it up. They were stocking shelves at the time and I don’t know if someone had dropped it or it fell off. My daughter ran to get help and a crowd gathered round me and they all ended up covered in the same blue liquid.”

Safeway declined to comment on the incident.