More than 600 eager shoppers awaited the opening of the H&M store in the Tucson Mall.

The two-level store offers clothing for men, women and children. This H&M is the first in Tucson and one of three in Arizona.

The store opening drew huge crowds, with H&M reaching fire capacity at some points. Lines for dressing rooms and cashiers stretched across the store.

Customers started lining up outside the mall at 9:30 Wednesday night, nearly 15 hours before the store’s opening at noon Thursday. The first 250 shoppers were given a gift bag containing merchandise and a gift card.

Bobbilyann Cruse, a pharmacy technician student at Pima Community College, arrived at H&M at 7:30 a.m. Cruse estimates there were fifty other people waiting in line when she arrived.

“”It was a stampede. It was crazy,”” Cruse said about the store’s official opening.

Wendy Lopez, a liberal arts student at Pima Community College, said that she wished she had not waited in line on opening day. “”It was ridiculous,”” Lopez said.

“”It’s pretty crazy,”” said UA pre-business junior Chad Middleton, who heard about the event through Facebook.

Other students were attracted to the opening by the mass of people.

“”I just came. I didn’t realize (the opening) was today. Then I just saw the line and I remembered,”” said fine arts senior Alaina Rios.

This was Rios’ first visit to H&M. “”I didn’t even know what it was. I really didn’t,”” Rios said. “”I like it, I’ll definitely come back.””