Armed police eject cinema toddler

CINEMA chain UGC has apologised for calling armed police to eject a two-year-old girl and her family from a screening of the new Disney film.

Officers stormed into the Ciné Cité complex at Les Halles in Paris to throw out the group of six adults and nine children on a family outing to see The Princess and the Frog on Saturday morning.

The cashier had asked the age of the young children and refused access to the youngest girl, who was two years and 10 months old. The Paris préfecture de police issued a law in 1927 banning under-threes from cinema screenings.

However the ticket sale had already gone through, and the group went ahead and settled down to watch the film.

One of the parents in the group, Eric Bordron, told Le Figaro that the police entered the darkened auditorium with torches after the trailers had finished.

"We were surrounded by about ten police officers with truncheons," he said. "We left because we did not want to be arrested. We lost the €100 we paid for the tickets, because UGC refused to give a refund."

UGC said it was deeply sorry for the way it had handled the incident and said it would display the text of the law banning under-threes prominently at the box office from now on.

The company said: "We will put everything in place to make sure this does not happen again."