Paranormal Activity, not Madagascar 3, shown to audience of toddlers

A scene from the Paranormal Activity movie franchise (AP)

Families who piled into Nottingham's Cineworld to see Madagascar 3 had to make an equally hasty exit when the supernatural horror film Paranormal Activity was screened instead by accident.

Children as young as five were among the audience of 25 families - who didn't make it out before the first scene of Paranormal Activity 4 was shown, featuring a bloodied female corpse slamming into the camera.

Natasha Lewis, who took her 8-year-old son to the showing, said: "It opens on the most terrifying scene in the first film - where a body shoots full pelt towards the camera. It's enough to make grown men jump, so you can imagine the terror in these young faces."

She added: "all you could hear were children crying and screaming".

Nottingham Cineworld offered an official apology for a "technical error with the projector", presumably not to scare the children with further talk of poltergeists.