Game Of Thrones fans in China have hit out after six minutes of the final season premiere was "censored".

The long-awaited HBO and Sky Atlantic series returned on Monday after a wait of almost two years.

Almost 200,000 people in the UK stayed awake/set the alarm to see the first broadcast at 2am, with the show going out at the same time as in the US.

Without giving away any spoilers, fans won't be surprised to hear it was an episode that contained some nudity and one or two violent scenes. Standard Game Of Thrones, in other words.

Entitled Winterfell, the opener was streamed by tech corporation Tencent in China as HBO was blocked there last year.

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However, viewers picked up on the fact it clocked in at 48 minutes – despite the official running time being 54 minutes.

Image: Game of Thrones fans have been told to 'brace themselves for quite a lot of distress'

On Chinese social media site Weibo, one user said it felt like "the deletion of a century".

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One Twitter user said: "Game of Thrones is censored and s**** here."

Chinese broadcasters are known for censorship, with gay scenes taken out of the Oscar-winning Bohemian Rhapsody film last month.

Jon Snow and Daenerys Targaryen in first episode of final series of Game Of Thrones. Pic: Sky Atlantic/ NOW TV/ HBO
Image: Jon Snow and Daenerys Targaryen. Pic: Sky Atlantic/ NOW TV/ HBO

In the UK, the first episode of Game Of Thrones has already been watched by 3.4 million Sky viewers.

After it aired, fans said they were relieved they could "finally come out of hiding" after making it to the debut without hearing any spoilers.

Many who waited until the second 9pm showing on Monday said they had stayed off social media all day so as not to come across any details.

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