Snoring man has throat slashed by angry cinema-goer

A man's snoring during a late-night movie in a Nanjing cinema led to his throat being slit by a patron in the row behind.

The incident went down in the city's Xinjiekou district at around 11pm on November 2.

Police arrived on the scene to find a cinema covered in blood, and a man holding his neck in the hallway. The gash across his neck was about 20 centimeters in length, local policeman Len Luoting said.

The attacker was a man surnamed Wang, who was seated in the row behind the victim, surnamed Chen. 

Wang said Chen was snoring loudly during the movie and was reminded several times by other patrons, as well as his friends, to keep it down. Each time he'd fall asleep again and the snoring would return.

Wang's girlfriend then asked cinema staff to come over and sort out the situation, but this angered the man who then invited Wang to "take it outside" — a reference to going outside to fight — after the pair had an argument.

A cinema employee said that Chen then told moviegoers that if they had a problem with his snoring they could leave.

At some point he then struck at Wang, who retaliated by pulling out a knife and slashing the man's neck.

Police said that Chen's injuries were not life threatening and that Wang had been detained over the incident.