CRYING children fled a city cinema after staff mistakenly started showing a horror film instead of the cartoon they were expecting.
Twenty-five people bought tickets to watch animated film Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted at Cineworld, in the Cornerhouse.
But as parents and children settled down to watch the PG-rated film, staff accidently started screening 15-rated Paranormal Activity 4 instead.
Cineworld has apologised to customers who were affected by the glitch, and say measures are being taken to ensure it doesn't happen again.
Natasha Lewis and her eight-year-old son, Dylan Lewis-Gray, were among the shocked cinema-goers. Miss Lewis, 32, of Newmarket Road, Bulwell, said: "I'm disgusted about it. Dylan doesn't want to set foot in there again.
"They need to check the film before sending everyone in so they don't make this mistake again."
The mother-of-one added: "There were parents and kids in there, including some children who were younger than Dylan.
"Dylan wanted to see the new Madagascar film as he's seen the others and they're his favourite. He was really looking forward to it.
"When we paid they said go to Screen Eight for Madagascar 3, so we did. We sat down and it was meant to start at 10am, but it took until 10.30am for the lights to go down and for the trailers to start.
"There was one trailer which contained a swear word, but I thought nothing of it. It then came up on screen 'Paranormal Activity 4' and I just thought it was another trailer.
"We then saw the opening scenes and everyone started to take the kids out. We had to get the kids out fast as some were crying. Everyone was upset.
"Dylan has not liked going to the cinema before but I thought we'd try it out. He doesn't want to go back."
Miss Lewis was refunded the £11.40 she had paid for the two tickets by staff, who also offered customers the chance to see Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted on another screen.
A spokeswoman for Cineworld said: "We have investigated the incident and can confirm that this was a technical error with the projector and apologise sincerely to the families. All customers who were affected by the incident were offered refunds and complimentary tickets.
"We also invited customers to watch the screening of Madagascar 3 half an hour later.
"We take matters such as this very seriously and are currently working with technicians to ensure this does not happen again."
