A cinema chain has apologised after horror film trailers were played before a showing of the children’s film Peppa Pig: Festival Of Fun.

Youngsters were left in tears after adverts for psychological horror Ma and scary superhero movie Brightburn were shown at the Empire Cinema in Ipswich, the BBC reported.

The trailer for Ma includes dead bodies and a man being struck by a car, and Brightburn has violence and a child in a scary mask.

A spokesman for the cinema chain apologised and said it was investigating how the “inappropriate” trailers were screened.

BBC journalist Charlie Jones had taken her two-year-old daughter and 10-month-old son to see Peppa Pig for their first cinema trip.

The 34-year-old said she tried to cover her daughter’s eyes when the trailers came on but that she had been “really subdued” since the experience and asked about the mask in one of the trailers.

“There were lots of kids crying and she was very confused and started crying too,” said Mrs Jones.

A spokesman for Empire Cinemas said: “We are investigating how an inappropriate trailer was played before a screening of Peppa Pig at our Ipswich Cinema for which we apologise.

“As soon as the staff on site were made aware of the situation, the programme was stopped and trailers were taken off-screen immediately.

“We do sincerely apologise for this and for any distress caused and will be reviewing our internal procedures to ascertain how this came to being.

“The film (Peppa Pig) did then go on screen as planned.”