Censors slammed over 'violent' film

British censors have come under fire after allowing violent new movie Eastern Promises to be screened uncut.

The David Cronenberg film, which stars Naomi Watts and Viggo Mortensen, features a throat being slit and an eye gouged out, as well as graphic depictions of child prostitution.

The scenes are reportedly so grisly that audience members at the movie's London Film Festival premiere gasped and looked away from the screen.

Members of the British Board of Film Classification were accused of being "completely out of touch" and adopting an "anything goes" policy after awarding the film - which centres on the Russian mafia in London - an 18 certificate.

Former BBFC president Andrew Whittam Smith said: "If I thought this was the type of film that was likely to make people leave the cinema, or even make them have to look away for quite a while, then I would question why the scene should be left in."

But a board spokesman defended the move, saying: "Scenes that make people turn away are part of the fun of going to movies. These days we are not here to cut; we are here to provide information and let people then make up their minds... People also have expectations of what a Cronenberg film is."