Batman Star Christian Bale Roughed up by Chinese Security Guards

Security guards in China have roughed up actor Christian Bale, it has been reported.

The British-born Hollywood actor was paying a visit to a blind legal activist who was under house arrest, the CNN has reported. The camera crew of the CNN, who were with the Batman star, were also roughed up by the security men in Dongshigu village in eastern Shandong province, the report has said. The news channel has also released a video of the incident on its website.

The activist, Chen Guangcheng, has been under house arrest for more than a year. "Why can I not visit this man?" Bale reportedly asked the guards as they pushed him.

"You know, I'm not being brave doing this. The local people who are standing up to the authorities and insisting on going to visit Chen and his family and getting beaten up for it, and my understanding, getting detained for it and everything. I want to support what they are doing," the actor has told the CNN. The channel has added that the guards followed its crew for more than half-an-hour.

Bale was in China as part of the promotion activities of his new film "The Flowers of War". He approached the CNN to help him meet Chen, a well-known campaigner against forced abortions. "This doesn't come naturally to me. But this was just a situation, I said, I can't look the other way," Bale told the CNN.