Berlin passers-by were slow to respond to a woman who had committed suicide, thinking that she was taking part in a piece of performance art.

The 24-year-old woman died jumping from a window at the Tacheles art gallery in the fashionable Mitte district.

"It wasn't immediately clear that the situation was for real," said police spokeswoman Christine Rother.

"They thought someone was playing around," she said.

The woman had come to the gallery the night before her death, and was filmed by artists there saying she planned to commit suicide.

The videotape is now in the hands of the police.

The group of artists tried to persuade the woman not to kill herself, and one of them drove her home.

However, she returned to the arts centre and carried out her threat.

Police are reported to have found a suicide note and are not treating her death as suspicious.