Managers of local around-the-clock restaurants expressed concern about people who use their eateries as places to sleep after a fatal stabbing in Shanghai last week.

On March 19, a waiter in a 24-hour McDonald's in Shanghai was killed by a man he had roused from his sleep.

It is also common for people to sleep in such restaurants in Beijing, local restaurateurs said.

"The sleepers could be found in almost every 24-hour McDonald's store in Beijing about midnight," said Zhang Jin, manager of one of the chain's restaurants in Chaoyang district.

Zhang said she has found migrant workers and college students sleeping in her store many times.

She is now thinking twice about tolerating the practice since the Shanghai incident.

Employees at her restaurant leave the sleeping people alone unless they put their legs on chairs, Zhang said.

Other restaurants take a dimmer view of the behavior.

"Sometimes, when some adult men come to sleep, our staff members feel unsafe. In those cases, we ask them to leave immediately," said Bao Dejun, 32, who for two years has operated a 24-hour noodle shop off the North Third Ring Road.

Bao, who said sleepers are unwelcome at the restaurant, noted that some of those visitors are drunks.

Some customers, however, said restaurants should provide excessive hospitality.

Roger Feiz, a European diner at a McDonald's, on Wednesday said he believed round-the-clock chains are supposed to host customers at midnight.

"That's what 24-hour chains are for," Feiz told METRO. "I once slept in a round-the-clock Starbucks in Indonesia after my flight went late and the staff were pretty friendly."

"I can understand homeless people sleeping in the stores because they just want to find a warm place in the cold winter," said Li Qilin, a 25-year-old man who works in Beijing.

He said he slept in a KFC restaurant two years ago when he was a university student.

He frequently studied in the store and fell asleep about midnight, he added.