Extras seek damages from Cruise

BERLIN (Reuters) - Twelve movie extras are seeking $11 million (5.99 million pounds) in damages from Tom Cruise and his production company after suffering broken bones, cuts and bruises in the filming of World War Two picture "Valkyrie" in Berlin last year.

The extras were injured on August 19, 2007, when the side panel of a period German army truck burst open as it drove around a corner in central Berlin.

A lawyer for the extras told Reuters Television on Tuesday that witness statements indicated the truck's side panel had not been properly secured.

Cruise was not on the set at the time.

"A new letter has been sent to Tom Cruise, (business partner) Paula Wagner and United Artists, in which we set out the facts of the case again and put a figure on the legal demands of our clients ... of $11 million," said lawyer Ariane Bluttner.

"Valkyrie" is named after the codename for a plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler concocted by senior German military officers during World War Two. Cruise plays ringleader Claus von Stauffenberg.

The film's original release date has been postponed to December 26 from July 4 this year.

The German government initially banned the production from shooting on location at the Berlin site where the plot was hatched and the conspirators executed.

It later changed its mind after months of national debate that focused in part on membership of the Scientologist spiritual movement, of which Cruise is a member.