Dark Knight Rises extra dies on set

New York - The upcoming Batman film The Dark Knight Rises suffered a tragic loss on set, reports the New York Post.

A male extra died last month during the filming of a busy crowd scene near Wall Street for the much-anticipated sequel, Warner Bros and the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) confirmed on Friday.

The man, whose identity has not been released, had not returned from a break during rehearsal and was later found unconscious. He was rushed to the hospital where he was pronounced dead of an apparent heart attack.

Natural causes

"The studio can confirm that a male extra passed away while on a break during an off-set crowd rehearsal for a sequence with several hundred extras... in early November," Warner Bros told the New York Post.

"Production fully co-operated with the authorities' investigation, which established that he died of natural causes."

The studio also revealed that neither Christian Bale, who stars as Bruce Wayne/Batman in the movie, nor any other member of the principal cast (which includes Anne Hathaway, Tom Hardy and Gary oldman) were on the set at the time.

The Dark Knight Rises is Christopher Nolan's third and final film in his Dark Knight trilogy - which is set for release in July 2012.

Heath Ledger died of an accidental overdose in 2008 after wrapping his role as The Joker in The Dark Knight.

A stuntman on The Hangover Part 2 - another Warner Bros film - suffered serious brain injuries and wound up in a medically induced coma after high-speed stunt went wrong in Thailand earlier this year.