An investigation has been launched by Indiana State Police after an officer shot at a man they believed to be a gunman but was actually an actor in a film.

Axar.az reports citing Independent that, the man in question - Jim Duff - was playing a robber in scenes filming in the city of Crawfordsville. Local police are said to have been responding to a report of a possible robbery at a brewery last week when Sgt. Matt Schroeter encountered the actor wearing a ski mask carrying what they believed to be was a gun.

Duff was backing out of the brewery when police ordered him to drop the weapon. However, Duff - caught off guard - turned and an officer fired a shot, missing him. State police confirmed Duff had then dropped the gun, pulled off his mask and told authorities they were on a film set.

The film's production company Montgomery County Movies - who had failed to notify police a robbery scene was being filmed - accepted responsibility for the misunderstanding with owner Philip Demoret telling WLFI: “We’re such a small company, we’ve been filming three to four years and we’ve just never thought about it. We just went in there and did what we normally do.

“We are working with the local police department to come up with ways to prevent this from happening again.”

Sgt. Kim Riley told FOX 59: “The bad part is all the cameras and everything were inside the bar. So there was nothing outside telling people that this was a film set.“

Duff was arrested but then released after police could confirm that he was working on the film.