Shanghai Daily News

Reality copied fiction with deadly effects yesterday afternoon, when a stunt man drowned while shooting a scene in a TV series where a character jumps into the Huangpu River and dies.

Police searched for the stunt man's body for more than an hour yesterday evening, but had to give up when tides started to rise, according to Lu Tao, a spokesman for the marine police. Lu said police were alerted at 4:23pm that a man was drowning near the Huishan dock on Yangshupu Road.

Police wouldn't provide the man's name yesterday, and only said he was in his 50s. "We have talked with the production team and will see if any corpse found in the river in the next few days accords with the physical features they provided," Lu said.

The production team told police the missing man had claimed he knew how to swim before they allowed him to perform the stunt.

"Witnesses said a life buoy was thrown at the same time he jumped for safety purposes but he failed to grasp it. He soon disappeared after struggling in the waters," said the police spokesman.

The TV series - Yuhuo Fenghuang (Phoenix in Flames) - had started shooting in the city around July 15. It is being directed by Jing Wong, a renowned filmmaker from Hong Kong, and has a budget of 30 million yuan (US$3.7 million).