HONG KONG • Actor Patrick Tse, 79, fractured a rib in a four-vehicle crash on a recent rainy day in Shenzhen, and is taking a few days off from a TVB production, said reports yesterday.

Tse, who has returned to Hong Kong for treatment, said he was on his way to the set when a truck cut in on the car he was in.

He told Apple Daily: "My driver was anxious to avoid it. Three cars behind couldn't stop in time, hit us and it became a four-vehicle collision. Mainlanders really drive any way they want."

He was sleeping and not wearing a seat belt at the time of the crash and fell off the seat, he said.

However, "I thought I was fine. Went into the studio, started working, shot two scenes, but my ribs began to hurt", he added.

Afterwards, he went to hospital to have an X-ray, but the doctor insisted he was okay because "they photographed only my right ribs, not the left side, and it was a rib on the left that had cracked".

He has since seen his usual doctor in Hong Kong and is resting, he said.

Tse is reuniting with writer- director Wong Jing to star in a reboot of his 1980s TVB series The Shell Game. The remake also stars actress Charmaine Sheh and actors Nat Chan, Kenneth Ma and Lau Siu Ming.