A Filipino actor has been shot dead by a night watchman in the central Philippine city of Cebu while filming a scene for a British movie.

Night watchman Eddie Cuizon claims he took actor Kirk Abella for a real gunman as he rode masked on a motorbike and armed with a plastic gun.

Abella died later in the evening after having been taken to hospital.

The dead actor had been filming one of the last takes of an armed robbery scene for a movie by British filmmaker Alan Lyddiard, who has filmed several of his projects in the Philippines.

Local television reports described how Cuizon noticed Abella and thought he was a gunman speeding away on a dark road in the city's Pari-an area.

He fired his gun at the fleeting figure in a bid to defend the community he was employed to protect.

Local police had accompanied the film crew during the evening but were not in the exact vicinity where the shooting took place.

Cuizon was arrested within hours of the shooting on grounds of breaching the country's gun laws.

Sitting next to Abella's coffin in a funeral parlour, members of the the dead man's family told reporters that they will push for a murder trial and will not settle outside of court.

The Philippines has one of the highest numbers of gun-related deaths per capita in Asia and the country has come under fire for having some of the most lax gun laws in the region.

Millions of guns are in circulation within the country of over 90 million, and are increasingly viewed as symbols of authority and power.