A SPECTATOR was stretchered from the crowd at York Barbican yesterday afternoon shortly before matches were to get underway in the Mr Q UK Snooker Championships.

The spectator had to be stretchered from the venue after collapsing shortly before the start of the matches between Judd Trump and Jamie Jones and Ding Junhui and Tom Ford, delaying the 1pm start times for both matches by around five minutes.

Another was helped from the crowd during the thrilling match between Mark Selby and Barry Hawkins in last night's evening session, though was able to walk out of the venue.

Trump, the Tour's in-form player this year, cruised into the Quarter Finals with a 6-0 victory, whilst the match between Selby and Hawkins went down to the final frame, the former progressing by the narrowest of margins in a thrilling conclusion.

Those instances follow a similar incident during Monday's opening round match between Trump and Pang Janxu, which was paused for 10 minutes during the fourth frame whilst a spectator received medical attention.

The World Snooker Tour told The Press: "Our team are extremely well prepared for this kind of situation and any incident where a spectator is taken ill is handled quickly and with due care.

"The welfare of our fans is always our highest priority."

A fire also caused the evacuation of the venue during Sunday's evening session, with players decanting to local pubs for the duration.