A cinematographer has been killed and a director injured after a prop gun misfired on a film set in America.

A prop gun being used by actor Alec Baldwin discharged, killing Halyna Hutchins and wounding Joel Souza on the set of Rust.

The family of Brandon Lee, an actor who was shot and killed by a prop gun during the filming of The Crow in 1993, offered their condolences.

A tweet said: “Our hearts go out to the family of Halyna Hutchins and to Joel Souza and all involved in the incident on “Rust”.

 

“No one should ever be killed by a gun on a film set. Period.”

Who was Brandon Lee?

The son of Bruce Lee, actor Brandon Lee died when he was filming on the set of The Crow.

Lee, 28 at the time, was filming a scene where his character was shot.

He was hit in the abdomen by a dummy round which had not been put together properly.

When the gun was loaded, the cartridges had had the powder charges removed. However, the primers had not been, and after one of the rounds was fired a bullet was pushed into the barrel and became lodged.

As actor Michael Masse fired the gun loaded with blank rounds for the actual scene, one of the blank rounds dislodged the bullet with almost the same force as if it was a live round.

Lee was rushed to hospital and underwent hours of surgery, but he was pronounced dead on March 31, 1993.

An inquest into his death ruled that it was an accident due to negligence.