A Chinese man was killed when he caught his girlfriend after she plunged from the seventh floor of an apartment building in the Quanzhou in south-eastern China.

The young man - who was identified only by the surname Wang - reportedly held out his arms to break the woman's fall after she jumped from their apartment in the city on Tuesday evening, the Deutsche Presse Agentur reported.

Wang was killed by the impact of his girlfriend landing on top of him, while the woman suffered several broken bones but was not critically injured, the Strait Capital Times newspaper said.

Witnesses said the couple had been arguing shortly before the incident, and the unnamed woman had been threatening to jump from the apartment.

Bystanders said Wang - who was standing on the street below - had been trying to persuade his girlfriend not to jump.

The woman appeared confused and unclear about how she fell from the apartment, sometimes giving her age as 18, and sometimes as 30, medical staff were quoted as saying.