A man has died following a freak accident involving an electronic footrest on a cinema seat.

The man was at the Vue Cinema in Birmingham when he apparently dropped his phone between two reclining seats.

As he went to retrieve it, a footrest of a seat came down on his head trapping him and he suffered a cardiac arrest, reports said.

Although the footrest was eventually broken off, the man, who was there with his partner, sustained serious injuries and he died a week later.

A source told the Birmingham Mail: "The Gold Class seats are electric reclining seats. He bent down to look for his phone. At this point the leg-rest was in an upright position.

"But as he stuck his head underneath to have a look, the footrest clamped down onto his head.

"He was stuck and panicking. His partner and staff tried to free him but couldn’t.

"The chair leg-rest was eventually broken free and he managed to get out.

"The ambulance had already been called and was at the scene at this time, and took him to hospital."

West Midlands Ambulance Service confirmed it was called to reports of a patient in cardiac arrest.

Crews managed to restart the man's heart and he was taken to the city's Heartlands Hospital.