"fit of panic" is a correct and commonly used phrase in written English.
It refers to a sudden, intense moment of fear or anxiety. Example: "She suddenly broke out in a fit of panic when she realized she had left her phone on the bus."
But the overwhelming crowds can throw someone like me, who'd rather sit in a dentist's office with an old copy of Golf Digest, into a fit of panic.
Earlier this year, in a fit of panic, William Hill closed off new betting on the 1969 wager "Will life be found on Mars?" after NASA discovered new signs of water on the planet.
It was supposed to be a carjacking, and whether Mr. Beazley fired out of rage or in a fit of panic, John Luttig was killed as his terrified wife crawled under the car to survive.
A victory over the Ravens that day would have put the Jets in the playoffs, but Hall had been left behind, replaced in a fit of panic by Coach Al Groh, who the week before had watched Hall miss a field goal that would have sent the game with Detroit into overtime.
Once Mexico began to struggle offensively De la Torre, in what appeared to be a fit of panic, began to turn to a core of veterans, such as the 34-year-old defensive midfielder Gerardo Torrado, instead of looking to some of the prospects who had helped Mexico to an Olympic gold medal.
And with a veteran operative running the show -- longtime Bush confidante Mike Murphy -- Right To Rise isn't likely to burn through its resources in a fit of panic.
The scans continue, as do the late-night fits of panic and the early morning fits of prayer.
Today there is no spectacle so ridiculous as the British public in one of its periodic fits of panic about the National Health Service (NHS).
Right there in the dock is a sight that in another era would have given Apple Computer's fiercest defenders fits of panic: a Windows "Start" button available on a Mac.
Congress may have passed the law in a fit of political panic, but the fraud that it was designed to deal with, far from being a matter of the proverbial few bad apples, was becoming endemic.
Actually, I have skeleton of a Facebook page -- last Thursday, late, in a fit of identity panic, I deleted all vaguely personal information such as groups, pages, and particularly invasive photos.
