A CITY official has declared that there is no man trapped inside the Chicago Bean – despite a viral online hoax claiming otherwise.

The fictitious rumour claims there is a human being trapped inside the Cloud Gate sculpture – which has sparked a movement of protesters rallying his alleged capture.

Brendan Reilly, a Chicago alderman, said the conspiracy about the city’s sculpture had left his office flooded with calls from alarmed citizens.

Earlier this month, a small group of protesters started gathering at the iconic stainless steel artwork.

Demonstrators were heard chanting: “There is a man in the Bean” and “What do we want? The man to get out.”

Enthusiastic demonstrators even handed out leaflets claiming the man’s existence was a cover-up – kept secret from locals for more than two decades.

They waved banners calling for officials to “unlock Cloud Gate” so that they could recover the trapped individual.

Unbelievable footage showed the movement congregate in front of the landmark, holding up pieces of cardboard with messages like: “GET HIM OUT NOW!”

The conspiracy, which also has an Instagram page dedicated to it, claims that bystanders can see a faint outline of the trapped man when the angle of the sun is “just right”.

The social media account uploaded a poster which says: WE CANNOT COMMUNICATE WITH THE MAN INSIDE THE BEAN.

“However, when the sun hits the Bean just right, YOU CAN SEE A FAINT OUTLINE OF THE MAN.”

The poster ends with a prompt to citizens that they should contact Reilly’s office – with his name spelled incorrectly – to demand that he take “immediate action” to free the man.

Local city councillor Reilly said the rumours were becoming a distraction from his work.

The official said: “I am happy to confirm that a man has not been trapped inside Cloud Gate (aka ‘the Bean’) for the past 21 years.”

He continued: “I appreciate light-hearted parody as much as the next guy, and I’ve always welcomed public engagement.

“However, this online hoax has led to a heavy uptick in calls to my office.

“Unfortunately, answering the heavy volume of calls regarding this hoax is ultimately a distraction for my office from the real work we do for the 42nd Ward and City of Chicago each day.”

The silver sculpture was created in the mid-2000s by Indian-born Brit artist Anish Kapoor.

The aforementioned poster which calls for the councillor to release the imprisoned man claims that he was put in there when he was a baby after Kapoor kidnapped him.

The poster reads: “When construction began on the Bean in 2004, Anish Kapoor, the artist and chief architect behind The Bean (Cloud Gate) STOLE A BABY and put that baby inside of The Bean.

“THE MAN has been held captive there ever since – LIVING IN COMPLETE ISOLATION.”

Baffled social media users flooded the comments section with questions.

One said: “How does he eat?”

While another joked: “Is he okay with bean in there?”