A man, Nguyen Van Ha, who was waiting in front of the Vietcombank Branch on Lang Ha Street, said that those queuing up mostly came from other provinces where gold shops had stopped selling gold bars.

"I'm from Ha Nam Province," Ha said. "I drove over 100 kilometres to Hanoi two days ago to buy gold but haven't been able to make any purchases. Yesterday I came here at 4 am to see hundreds of others queuing already. Meanwhile, the bank only sold gold to the first 150 customers so my turn didn't come. I decided to return at 1 am today and hope that I can buy two teals."

Another customer, Phan Thi Lan, from Bac Ninh Province said that she and some relatives were among the first to queue at 9 pm on Wednesday.

"We brought some fast food and drinks and some mats to rest while queuing," Lan said. "I had heard that the banks are selling a very limited amount of gold while demand is very high."

At 9 am on Thursday, the bank branch announced that they had sold all their gold to 50 customers for the morning and asked customers to return in the afternoon. Each customer was only allowed to purchase two teals of gold.

The same scene were seen at branches of four large commercial banks with state capital including Agribank, BIDV, VietinBank and Vietcombank, who have been selected to sell SJC gold bars at stabilised prices since June 10.

Speaking to the Vietnam News, Nguyen Thi Phuong, Deputy Director-General of Agribank, said the bank had underestimated demand to buy gold, which had resulted in some customers having to go home empty handed.

She, however, said people need not rush to buy gold as the banks will continue to supply the market until the targeted price gap is achieved.

Phung Nguyen Hai Yen, Deputy Director-General of Vietcombank, said the central bank had set maximum and minimum quantities for each bank for each trading session. Vietcombank will sell to customers based on demand and the quantity available to the bank.

"If the bank runs out of gold, the order could still be processed and finalised once Vietcombank receives additional gold from the central bank," she said.

Vietcombank requires customers to present a valid ID and put down a 10 per cent deposit on their orders, which will not be refunded in the event the customers fail to finalise the purchases. Customers can use either cash or transfers, but the latter is preferable for large orders to save time.