Two people have been shot after actor Alec Baldwin discharged a prop firearm on a movie set in New Mexico yesterday, with one dying from her wounds.

Director of photography for the Western film Rust, Halyna Hutchins, 42, died at the University of New Mexico Hospital in Albuquerque shortly after the shooting on set. Director Joul Souza, 48, has been taken to another nearby medical centre where he is receiving emergency care, US authorities have said.

Baldwin, 63, appeared outside the sheriff’s office “distraught and in tears” while on the phone. No charges have been filed against him yet.

The incident happened during filming of Rust, an American Western film, centred on Harland Rust, played by Baldwin, who is an outlaw with a bounty on his head.

A photo uploaded on Thursday to Baldwin’s Instagram, showing Baldwin on set, was removed from his page hours after the shooting.