Crowds turn out to see Corrie's Tyrone in Shrewsbury

The 29-year-old is at the centre of a domestic violence storyline in the hit ITV soap and admitted he was constantly stopped on the street and told to leave his on-screen partner Kirsty Soames, played by Natalie Gumede.

Queues formed outside the door of the Midcounties Co-op Travel branch in Pride Hill long before it opened at 11am on Saturday.

Mr Halsall, who in real life is married to fellow actor Katie-Jo Hudson, said he was stunned at the turnout.

"It's been fantastic," he said.

"We were walking down to the shop and I thought to myself 'what are all these people doing here, what's going on?' Then I realised it was for the opening.

"It's great to meet fans of the show and the turnout was unbelievable."

The actor cut the ribbon to officially open the store, which will create up to eight jobs, before moving inside to sign autographs and pose for pictures.

He stayed for two hours, leaving just after 1pm.

Speaking about his on-screen relationship, he said: "I get a lot of 'you need to leave Kirsty' and 'you need to get rid'.

"But the really great thing is that people are talking about it, which is what we wanted.

"We like to tackle difficult issues on Corrie and I am really enjoying doing the storyline at the moment."

The shop has opened in the unit previously occupied by Past Times.

Sue Reid, group general manager for travel distribution at Midcounties, said: "We are very excited about opening in Shrewsbury in this, the International Year of Co-operatives, and we wanted to create a real buzz.

"We see the new branch as a great opportunity to serve the local community which is why we have invested here."

The new store, is the first in the country to be branded as cooptravel.co.uk