London bus explosion scares residents unaware stunt was part of film shoot

A London double-decker bus exploded while crossing Lambeth Bridge on Sunday morning as part of a film shoot, scaring residents and tourists who weren’t aware it was for a movie.

According to the Associated Press, the stunt was filmed for The Foreigner, a action-thriller starring Jackie Chan and Pierce Brosnan. Adapted from the book The Chinaman, The Foreigner tells of a restaurant owner who surpasses his moral boundaries to track down the Irish terrorists who killed his daughter when the justice system fails him.

Production had sent out notifications and put up signs ahead of the planned explosion, which some on social media pointed out. Others claimed they weren’t properly made aware of what would transpire, while the AP reported that city officials reassured the public on Sunday.

Author Sophe Kinsella tweeted that the scene scared children in a nearby park. Nigel Huddleston, a member of Parliament, wrote there’s “clearly a need to improve notifications” after tweeting video footage of the stunt.

“Local residents and businesses were informed and notices posted in lobbies and [elevators] saying to expect ‘a controlled explosion.’ 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,” Huddleston said (via The Guardian). “Walking past Parliament a few minutes later, some tourists clearly had no idea whether it was real or not.”