Hundreds of young fans were left disappointed as touts swept up tickets to see Hayley Kiyoko at Islington’s O2 Academy – to sell them for eight times the price.

The American singer’s followers were already concerned the small venue would mean a battle for seats. There were two separate pre-sales before general sale this morning.

The first happened through Ms Kiyoko’s fansite, via Ticketweb and the O2 priority app.

“As soon as I found out that there was going to be a pre-sale on Wednesday I registered for it,” one fan, Kat B, told the Gazette.

But, like many, she was furious when the pre-sale sold out in seconds – and, moments later, tickets began appearing on resale websites for hugely inflated prices.

General public sale began on Friday morning. The sale again sold out instantly and tickets started appearing immediately on ticket resale sites.

“The sale went live and I clicked on it immediately, only to be greeted by: ‘Tickets not currently available at Ticketmaster’,” said Kat, “and the link to resale sites which charged £110 up to £180, as far as I saw, for a single ticket.”

Fans of Ms Kiyoko took to social media to share their frustration with the ticket websites, with some asking sellers to clamp down harder on touts so they have a fair chance of buying tickets.

At one point, ticket resale site Viagogo claimed more than 1,000 people were looking at the same batch of tickets on its page.

Fans have also called official ticket sellers Ticketmaster “hypocrites” after it promised publicly to crack down on touts despite wning two large ticket resale sites – Get Me In and Seatwave. Both are widely used by touts to turn a hefty profit. Hayley Kiyoko tweeted out to fans about the situation, telling them: “Don’t buy ‘em,” and adding she and her team were working on solving the problem.