Beijing - A Chinese man died after catching his girlfriend as she jumped from the seventh floor of an apartment block in the south-eastern city of Quanzhou, local media reported on Wednesday.

The young man, identified only by the surname Wang, held out his arms to break the woman's fall as she plummeted from their apartment in the city on Tuesday evening, the Straits Capital News (Haixia Dushi Bao) reported on its website.

Wang was killed by the impact of his girlfriend landing on top of him, while the woman suffered bone fractures and other serious injuries but was not in critical condition, the newspaper said.

The couple had quarreled shortly before the unnamed woman began threatening to jump from the apartment, it quoted witnesses as saying.

The witnesses reported seeing Wang on the street below the apartment, trying to persuade his girlfriend not to jump.

The newspaper showed photographs of the injured woman in hospital and of the street below the apartment.

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

She was under treatment for multiple fractures and required surgery, but she did not suffer any life-threatening injuries, it said. (dpa)