A catastrophic £250billion has been wiped off the stock market in the worst week ever for the FTSE 100.
Political leaders were left looking powerless yesterday as appeals for calm were ignored and 'blind panic' set in on Freefall Friday.
The continuing carnage meant that the bluechip index had lost a staggering quarter of a trillion pounds, 21 per cent of its value, in five days.
On Monday the FTSE opened at 4980 points. Last night it closed at 3932, a fall of 1048.
The panic has been mirrored around the world. In Wall Street, the Dow Jones Index has crashed by nearly a fifth since Monday and yesterday President Bush was forced into making his 19th emergency statement since September.
There was another blow for British investors last night when Iceland's Prime Minister said point-blank that his country could not afford to repay overseas investors in its collapsed banks.