Renowned actor Alec Baldwin has discharged a prop weapon on the set of Rust, accidentally killing a cinematographer and injuring a director.

42-year-old director of photography Halyna Hutchins was rushed to hospital by helicopter but pronounced dead by hospital staff.

48-year-old director Joel Souza was also injured, and has been taken to hospital by ambulance.

Rust is being filmed in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and stars Baldwin as a 19th century Western outlaw whose son is convicted of an accidental murder.

The Santa Fe County Sheriff’s office says an investigation remains open and active, but no charges have yet been filed.

Nine News US correspondent Michael Genovese told Jim Wilson Baldwin has been photographed voluntarily entering and leaving the local police station.

“They were filming a western, but it pretty quickly turned into a horror story.

“He just looks like a shell of a man.”

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Image: Mark Sagliocco/Getty Images for National Geographic