Police have obtained a search warrant for Alec Baldwin’s mobile phone as the actor denied that he asked for a bigger gun on set.

The search warrant and an accompanying affidavit were filed in Santa Fe County Magistrate Court in New Mexico by police investigating the death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the set of the Western movie “Rust”.

Hutchins, 42, died when a prop gun Baldwin had been told was safe fired off a live bullet during a rehearsal on Oct 21.

The warrant authorised police to seize Baldwin’s Apple iPhone in order to examine text messages, email correspondence, social network communications, browser activity and other information stored on the device, according to the documents.

A sheriff’s detective, Alexandria Hancock, said in her affidavit that she sought a court order requiring Baldwin to turn over his phone after she had requested it from the actor and his lawyer on a voluntary basis and “was instructed to acquire a warrant.”

Neither the warrant nor the seven-page affidavit cited any particular material that investigators were looking for on Baldwin’s phone.

But the affidavit said people “often make and/or receive telephone calls and/or messages before, during and/or after” an incident and “such information, if it exists, may be material and relevant to this investigation.”