Man died after getting neck trapped under cinema seat

A cinema goer died of “catastrophic” injuries after becoming trapped under a chair, a UK inquest heard.

Ateeq Rafiq, 24, died last year at a cinema in central England, despite desperate efforts to save him, Birmingham Live reports.

The father of one and his wife Ayesha Sardar had bought gold star tickets for seats at the Vue Cinema in Birmingham.

At the end of the film, he believed he had dropped either his keys or phone down the side of the seat that had an adjustable footrest.

Mrs Sardar said her husband used her phone’s torch to search for his lost items under the seat with the footrest raised.

She said at one moment his whole torso was beneath it with only his legs visible.

"The footrest started to come down trapping his neck. He called out in pain," Mrs Sardar told jurors yesterday.

“Very quickly the footrest started to come down on him,” said coroner Emma Brown.

Then Mrs Sardar tried to hold it up but her fingers became trapped.

After she alerted cinema staff to her husband’s plight, frantic efforts to release began.

But the electronic buttons that controlled the footrest did not work, the jury heard.

Paramedics were called and Mr Rafiq was taken to hospital where he died seven days later from a hypoxic brain injury.

Doctors said he suffered “catastrophic” injuries.

The coroner said the inquiry would examine how he became trapped and any mechanical failings in the footrest design.

In a statement Ayesha Sardar described her husband as a "loving father, son, husband and friend”.

"He was always happy and positive and took every day as it came.

"He had a brilliant sense of humour and the greatest of hearts.”

The inquest continues.