A terrifying moment on the Harry Potter soundstages Wednesday, as Daniel Radcliffe’s stuntman was hospitalized with serious back injuries following an onset mishap.

Because the accident took place during preproduction for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Radcliffe and the film’s marquee stars were not on set at the time.

The injury occurred when the 25-year-old man, who has doubled for Radcliffe on all Potter films and whose name has not been released “out of respect for his family,” was running through stunts at England’s Leavesden Studios.

During an aerial sequence in which the stuntman was suspended by a harness, a planned blast somehow went wrong and he crashed to the ground.

According to London’s Mirror and the Sun, the man was conscious after the fall, but both reports quoted crew members who said the stuntman was unable to feel his legs after the plunge.

“The person has been taken to hospital and we are awaiting further news,” Warner Bros. said in a statement.

“Paramedics were called to Leavesden Studios yesterday at 11:35 a.m. after a man in his 20s sustained a significant back injury,” a spokesman for East of England Ambulance Service said. “He was stabilized at the scene and taken to Watford General Hospital.”

He has since been transferred to an undisclosed facility.

The film, the final in the Harry Potter franchise, will be split into two movies, the first of which is set for release in November 2010.

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