George Stephanopoulos, who interviewed Baldwin, said afterward: “He was devastated, but he was also very candid, very forthcoming.”

Stephanopoulos also asked: “I think the big question, and the one you must have asked yourself a thousand times, how could this have happened?

And he asked Baldwin: “You’ve described it as a one-in-a-trillion shot and the gun was in your hand, how do you come to terms with that?”

He also asked Baldwin how he would “respond to actors like George Clooney who say every time they were handed a gun they checked it themselves?”

Stephanopoulos also asked the actor: “Do you feel guilt?”

The answers to those questions will not be seen until the full interview is broadcast on ABC in the US at 1am GMT on Friday. It will also be streamed on Hulu.

Police investigating the tragedy are looking into whether recycled live ammunition may have made its way into a stash of dummy bullets used for the production on a film set in New Mexico.

Industry experts have said live rounds should never be on set.

Newly released court documents included a search warrant for the premises of a local supplier of ammunition and movie props in New Mexico.

The supplier told police he suspected that the live bullets found on the set may have been “reloaded ammunition” that he got previously from a friend.

“Reloaded ammunition” is made up of recycled components, including bullets.