A LEGAL action could prevent the closure of a supermarket which is being seen as the first casualty of an intense "stores war" in Northern Ireland.

Earlier this month Stewarts/Crazy Prices - which last week was acquired by Tesco - announced it was closing a Crazy Prices stores in the Tower Centre, Ballymena, Co Antrim this Saturday.

But yesterday, in the High Court in Belfast, a lawyer for Stewarts/Crazy Prices gave an undertaking that the Tower Centre supermarket would continue trading - at least until April 16th when the matter is due back in court.

Ravenseft Properties Ltd, which owns the Tower Centre, has applied for an injunction to prevent Crazy Prices moving out.

The owners claimed Crazy Prices was obliged to continue trading under the terms of a tenancy agreement and said that if the supermarket moved out it would have a detrimental effect on other traders.