The CEO of America's leading seafood restaurant chain issued a public apology this week for long lines of frustrated Mother's Day diners that resulted in violence at some of its restaurants.

Social media is littered with videos showing the violence at outlets in Pennsylvania and other locations, as customers' tempers boiled over after waiting in line for hours to pick up takeout meals.

“I apologize that we disappointed many of you this past weekend as you placed orders for Mother’s Day, one of the most important days of the year,” Red Lobster CEO Kim Lopdrup wrote in a statement.

“We received significantly more online orders than we have ever gotten in a single day, and despite preparing for a spike in demand on Mother’s Day, some of our restaurants were unable to keep up with the volume.”

At some restaurants police had to be called to break up fights between staff and frustrated customers.

The videos of the violence exploded on Twitter on Wednesday, making #redlobster one of the biggest trending hashtags of the day.

Lopdrup said his team plans to review the company’s online system and discuss methods to handle a recurrence.