Hollywood actor, Alec Baldwin’s prop gun misfires on set, kills one

American actor Alec Baldwin fired a prop gun on set of the movie “Rust” which killed a film crew member and injured another.

According to law enforcement investigation, CNN reports that the incident occurred in New Mexico on Thursday at approximately 1:50 p.m. local time.

42 year old Halyna Hutchins, the Director of photography, was shot and transported to the hospital via helicopter but  pronounced dead by medical personnel at University of New Mexico Hospital, according to the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office.

Director Joel Souza, 48, was transported to Christus St. Vincent’s Regional Medical Center by ambulance for care.

It was gathered that the scene being filmed involved the use of a prop firearm. “Detectives are investigating how and what type of projectile was discharged.”

“Rust” is a Western film set in the 1880s that stars Baldwin, Travis Fimmel and Jensen Ackles.

According to a description of the film on IMDB, “Rust” is a story about a 13 year-old boy “who goes on the run with his long estranged grandfather after he’s sentenced to hang for the accidental killing of a local rancher”.

This is not the first time in history people have been killed by supposed harmless guns on movie sets.

Brandon Lee, the son of Bruce Lee, was killed by a bullet from a gun supposed to contain just blanks, but had a bullet lodged in the barrel on the movie set of  “The Crow” in 1993.

Even blanks are said to be fatal when fired at close range.