Ed Sheeran 'almost killed' Elton John while filming Merry Christmas music video

Ed Sheeran almost seriously injured Elton John while they were filming the music video for their new song, Merry Christmas.

While speaking to Apple Music's Zane Lowe, Sheeran opened up about the incident, which took place while the 30-year-old was dressed up as a "sexy Santa Claus".

"We just shot a Christmas music video. Oh, mate. I almost killed him with a bell," the Shape of You hitmaker told Lowe. "On the video, there's footage of... I'm dressed up as sort of sexy Santa Claus and I kick a present, but the present had a big metal bell on top of it. I showed him the footage of it today because we slowed it down and the bell flew past his head and would've cracked him in the head."

As the bell flew through the air, Sheeran said he felt a "horror" through his body until it passed John's head.

"But, man, the music video is wild," he continued. "We've parodied all the great British music videos that came at Christmas."

In October, Sheeran revealed he and John decided to collaborate during one of their daily phone conversations.

"He rung (sic) me on Christmas Day, and he said, Step Into Christmas is No. 6 in the charts, and I'm 74, and I'm still having f**king chart hits, this is great!" he recalled to NPO Radio 2. "I want to do another Christmas song, will you do it with me?'"

The Bad Habits hitmaker told Lowe he and the 74-year-old plan to split the profits from the single and each donate the money to charity.