Tourists watched in astonishment as the man, wearing casual clothes and a Parka, floated by in the Niagara River, then plunged headfirst down the 180ft waterfall.

Earlier he had been seen to climb over fencing near a lookout above the falls and slide down an embankment into the water.

After four minutes in the water Kirk Jones, 40, from Michigan, hauled himself out and saluted thousands of onlookers from the rocks below the cascade. Police arrived soon after and arrested him.

He was later charged with unlawfully performing a stunt, which carries a maximum fine of $10,000 (about £7,000). He was also charged with mischief under the criminal code of Canada. Police also led away an accomplice who had filmed the fall, raising suspicion that it had been a staged stunt.

American reality television shows are known to pay large amounts for exclusive broadcast rights to daring stunts.

“When we got down there, the guy had just got on to the rocks,” Captain Shawn Bates, of the Niagara Fire Department’s rescue unit, said. “He swam over to the rocks by himself.

“He was very co-operative. He grabbed a hunk of moss and put it in his pocket and said: ‘That’s going to be a souvenir.’ I don’t know if he was thinking quite right.”

Lynda Satelmajer, from Ontario, said that she and her family had watched the man as he prepared to get in the water and then watched him go over the falls, smiling all the way. “He seemed a bit edgy; kind of jumping around,” she said. “He walked over to where we were standing and he jumped and slid down on his backside and went over the brink. It was really freaky, actually. He was smiling.”

Water rushes over the falls, which separate the United States and Canada, at a rate of 150,000 gallons a second. Fifteen people have taken the plunge in barrels or other protective chambers since 1901; ten survived. Suicides are not uncommon, but police do not give numbers.

“I saw him disappear over the edge of the falls,” Terry McMullen, a tourist, said. Mr McMullen’s wife, Brenda, said: “He just looked calm. He just was gliding by so fast. I was in shock, really, that I saw a person go by.”

Only one other person is known to have survived a plunge over the Canadian side of the falls without a barrel or other protective gear. Sam Patch, a professional daredevil, jumped into the Niagara twice for a stunt in 1829. He died in a later stunt.

In 1960 a seven-year-old boy wearing a lifejacket also survived, having been thrown into the water in a boating accident.

No one has survived a trip over the narrower and rockier drop on the American side.

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