A pensioner has died while watching a horror movie in a cinema in Thailand.
77-year-old Bernard Channing, from Gedling, Nottinghamshire, was on holiday in Pattaya, Thailand, when he went to the cinema to see the film Annabelle Comes Home.
Sadly, however, when the film finished and the house lights came up, a cinema-goer sitting nearby saw Channing still in his seat, and was shocked to find out he has passed away.
The woman who made the discovery shouted for staff, who rushed into the cinema and called emergency services. The pensioner was pronounced dead inside the venue though, and emergency services covered his body before loading it into an ambulance.
Local Monthira Phengrat, who turned up at the cinema after the screening, said guests were ‘very upset’.
She said:
There were some people at the entrance talking with staff. They were in the cinema where the man died and they were very upset.
They were shocked by what had happened. Some people had been sitting near the dead man.
The cinema staff were very concerned and they tried to prevent anybody from seeing what was happening. We were prohibited from taking pictures.
It is reported Channing was sitting next to someone, though it is not clear what their relationship was, or if they were together.
The pensioner’s body has been taken to a hospital in the Banglamung district, where doctors will perform a post mortem examination to determine the exact cause of death.
Police Lieutenant Colonel Polpattham Thammachat told reporters:
Police were notified of the death at 8pm inside the cinema in a shopping mall.
From the preliminary investigation it was not known how the foreign man had died but doctors will conduct an autopsy to establish the true cause of death.
We are not looking for anybody else connected to the death. We do not believe there was suspicious foul play.
So far, a cause of death has not yet been determined.
If you have experienced a bereavement and would like to speak with someone in confidence contact Cruse Bereavement Care via their national helpline on 0808 808 1677.
Charlie Cocksedge is a journalist and sub-editor at UNILAD. He graduated from the University of Manchester with an MA in Creative Writing, where he learnt how to write in the third person, before getting his NCTJ. His work has also appeared in such places as The Guardian, PN Review and the bin.