Doubledecker bus blown up for scene in Jackie Chan film alarms Londoners with its ‘scale and realism’

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

A London doubledecker that exploded while crossing Lambeth Bridge in a Hollywood film stunt alarmed onlookers who feared it was a terror attack.

Children in a nearby park “freaked”, according to author Sophie Kinsella, who saw the top deck of the bus blow up as it travelled towards Westminster on Sunday morning.

The stunt was reportedly being filmed for a scene in The Foreigner, which will star Jackie Chan and Pierce Brosnan.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Bus explodes on Lambeth Bridge in London during filming for Jackie Chan’s new film. Photograph: Steve Parsons/PA

Nigel Huddleston, the Conservative MP for mid-Worcestershire, caught the explosion on video. He said the “scale and realism of the explosion would have worried a lot of people”.

“Anyone worried about the exploding bus on Lambeth Bridge just now?” he tweeted. “It was just for a movie.”

One Twitter user, Failnaut, who saw a video of the blast, said it reminded him of the 7/7 attacks on the London transport network. He said: “If you’re filming a London bus blowing up and tweeting it out, say it’s fake. Some of us lived through 7/7 waiting to see who’d died.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Smoke bellows from the bus shortly after the explosion on Sunday morning. Photograph: Steve Parsons/PA

The blast created a huge fireball that ripped off the top of the bus as it crossed the bridge, leaving what another onlooker, Chris Cheeseman, described as “a grim aftermath” with dummy bodies visible on the top deck.

Kinsella tweeted: “Hey film types next time you blow up a bus on Lambeth Bridge maybe tell us first so children in park aren’t freaked?” She added: “I was freaked too. Looked very real.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest The bus after it exploded on Lambeth Bridge. Photograph: Steve Parsons/PA

Huddleston said: “Local residents and businesses were informed and notices posted in lobbies and lifts saying to expect ‘a controlled explosion’ between 9am and 10am.

“But the scale and realism of the explosion would have worried a lot of people who were quite a long way off and not able to see the film crew and cameras. Walking past parliament a few minutes later, some tourists clearly had no idea whether it was real or not.

“It is great that London is such a desirable location for filming but the filmmakers and authorities could clearly have done a better job at communicating – especially in times of heightened security.”