Lightsaber duel staged in Birmingham ahead of Star Wars: The Last Jedi release - WATCH

Lightsaber duels have been staged in London, Liverpool, Manchester and Birmingham ahead of the films release to the delight of locals.

Shania West, a trained stunt fighter, and Anton Simpson-Tidy, a world champion martial arts athlete, were given Lightsabers to train with for a week before staging the duel on London’s Southbank to mark the nationwide film release of Star Wars: The Last Jedi, on December 14th.

Disney commissioned Star Wars fan and photographer Matt Scutt to create a series of stunning light trail pictures using the famous Jedi weapon.

The Instagram sensation, who has over 307,000 followers, and is famous for his long exposure photographs toured the UK this week to produce the remarkable set of images with Star Wars fans wielding a variety of different coloured ‘sabers.

Passersby in London, Birmingham, Manchester and Liverpool witnessed the photoshoots, with Matt teaming up with Star Wars fans in each city to create images, which took over four hours each to complete.

Writer and Director of Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Rian Johnson said: “From day one of our shoot here in the UK the feeling of excitement and love for Star Wars has been palpable; and if you grew up loving Star Wars, you grew up loving lightsabers.

"The cast trained for months to perfect their lightsaber skills, so it’s really impressive to see what these two Jedi-in-training have put together in just a few days.”

Photographer Matt Scutt said: “I've been a fan of Star Wars since I was kid – so to be given the chance to capture lightsabers in action was a dream project”.

Star Wars: The Last Jedi is released in UK cinemas on Thursday, December 14.