As flames shot from the roof of the cinema, a 2 ½ tonne Batmobile raced down Leicester Square's red carpet to launch the European premiere of The Dark Knight, the follow-up to Batman Begins.

Following in its wake were the stars of the film, with Christian Bale reprising his role as Batman and Bruce Wayne, Sir Michael Caine playing Alfred the faithful butler, and Maggie Gyllenhaal as Rachel Dawes, childhood friend of Wayne.

The hype around the European premiere was heightened after The Dark Knight gave Hollywood its biggest ever box-office opening weekend.

The film took $158.3 million (£79.2m) in US ticket sales trumping Spiderman 3's previous records of $151.1 million (£75.6m) set in May last year.

Paul Dergarabedian, president of box office tracker Media By Numbers, said: "A big part” of The Dark Knight's success was “the Heath Ledger mystique and a phenomenal performance that absolutely deserves the excitement surrounding it."

Calls for a posthumous Oscar nomination for Ledger have continued.

Sir Michael said he would be "very surprised" if Ledger did not win an Oscar for playing "one of the greatest villains I have ever seen".

Ledger, who was nominated for an Academy Award for Brokeback Mountain in 2006, died aged 28 of an accidental prescription drug overdose at his home in New York in January.

He would become the first actor to win a posthumous Oscar since Peter Finch won for Network in 1977.