Dubai's attempt to hold a 'flash mob' failed spectacularly when only five people took part in the event at the city's Mall of the Emirates.

Video: Click here to watch Dubai's first flashmob

It was originally hoped over 200 people would stand frozen to the spot for exactly five minutes on Tuesday evening. But it soon became apparent that would not be the case as reporters and photographers outnumbered willing participants by around five to one.

By definition a flash mob is a large group of people who assemble in a public place, perform an unusual action and then quickly disperse.

But the event organizer, Jordanian-born engineer Firas Natour, had to coordinate with mall authorities and security before getting the go-ahead to hold 'the spectacle', thereby diminishing the impromptu nature of the event.

Natour said: "The mall management and security had a pretty open mind about the event so it was fairly easy to organize. I'm keen to organize another flash mob but it will be a secret and the media won't know about it."

The low-key event attracted a crowd of about 200 curious onlookers scattered around the mall's various floors. Several security guards obviously hadn't been briefed on the proceedings and they cause more of a stir than the actual participants.

Alaa Jazmti, a 29-year-old art director from Syria, froze just outside the periphery of the main group.

He said: I took part because events like this are cool, different and something new. I'm not an attention seeking person so I stood outside the main group but it was great fun and I would take part again.

Jordan Wyatt-Baker, a 27-year-old mechanical engineer from the US, thought the media scared some people away from participating.

"It was a great personal experience although I thought the security guards were going to pull the plug on the event about halfway through when they started shaking Firas and asking him if was ok.

Students Sarah Elhindi, 18, from Lebanon and Zain Nizameddin, 18, from Syria were the other two participants. They travelled all the way from Abu Dhabi after reading about the event on the social networking website Facebook.

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