HONG KONG (AFP) - Batman might cut a superhuman figure as he fights off evil-doers to save the world, but Hong Kong's polluted harbour is, apparently, one death-defying stunt too far.
Producers shooting the next Batman movie have been forced to cut one scene involving the caped crusader -- played by Christian Bale -- jumping out of a plane into the city's famed Victoria Harbour.
According to the South China Morning Post, producers felt the poor water quality was just too dangerous for the action hero when shooting for part of the film takes place here in the coming week.
Citing two unidentified production sources, it said the stunt had now been taken off the shooting list for "The Dark Knight," the sequel to the 2005 hit "Batman Begins" and the latest in the blockbuster franchise.
"There was supposed to be a scene where Batman jumps out of the back of a Hercules C-130 and into Victoria Harbour," one source was quoted as saying.
"The plan was for Batman to be seen jumping into the water and then climbing up some bamboo, or something similar, onto a pier.
"But when they checked a water sample, they found all sorts of things, salmonella and tuberculosis, so it was cancelled. Now the action will cut to inside a building," the source added.
A spokeswoman for October Pictures, the Hong Kong production company which is managing the shoot, would not comment on the report.
A spokeswoman for Hong Kong's Environmental Protection Department admitted that harbour water was not suitable for swimming due to untreated sewage, the newspaper said.
As well as poor water, Hong Kong also suffers from air pollution that on many days leaves the city clouded in haze, partly caused by local power plants and emissions from factories in the neighbouring Pearl River Delta region in southern China.
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