In a scene in the movie Rust, actor Alec Baldwin was to point a revolver at the camera lens.

It was when Baldwin was rehearsing in front of the stage that his prop weapon went off and killed the film photographer Halyna Hutchins and injured the film's director, director Joel Souza states in a court statement that was published on Sunday night.

It is still unclear how the shot fired could have been fatal.

A weapons expert was on site during the filming.

According to the director, the film crew left the filming location during a lunch break on the day of the accident and he is unsure if the weapon was checked again when they returned.

Collection against props weapons

Screenwriter and director Bandar Albuliwi has started a petition to ban the use of real firearms during filming.

At the time of writing, the collection has just over 23,000 signatures.

In 1993, actor Brandon Lee, son of martial arts legend Bruce Lee, died in a similar accident.

During the filming of the movie The Crow, Lee was shot to death by a prop weapon during filming.

Brandon's sister Shannon Lee told CNN over the weekend that it was tragic that a person was killed again during a filming.

- Actors know too little about the weapons they use, which is why strict safety routines are so incredibly important.

Real weapons can be used

The fatal accident has raised the question of what type of supplies and ammunition should be used during filming.

There are a number of different variants of prop weapons, but real weapons with "pretend bullets" exist.

To appear as a credible substitute, the ammunition - "blanks" - that is often used is a modified version of a real pistol bullet, writes the BBC.

With the help of these prop bullets, the idea is to be able to fire real pistols, get the same sound, recoil and explosion light - without firing an actual shot.

Exactly what happened to the weapon that was fired during the Rust recording is still unknown, but according to the IATSE union and also according to documents in the police investigation, it was a sharp shot in the prop pistol.

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According to the police, it was the film's co-producer and the film's star Alec Baldwin who held the weapon that was fired.

Photo: AFP