3:34pm UK, Wednesday September 22, 2004

A group of actors filming a bank robbery scene played their parts so well they fooled police and were arrested.

The Serbian thespians had stockings on their heads and fake guns when the police swooped.

"We had just put black stockings on our heads and were carrying plastic handguns needed for the scene, when about 30 policemen surrounded us with pistols pointed at us," actor Aleksandar Gajin told the Vecernje Novosti newspaper.

The incident happened about 30 miles north of Belgrade.

The newspaper said the group had a hard job explaining they were not real bank robbers.

Police confiscated the actors' toy weapons and the purported loot - black plastic bags stuffed with newspapers.

"Police used no brutality ... they just warned us that we should have informed them in advance," Gajin said.