Austrian extreme athlete Felix Baumgartner, who jumped down to earth from the stratosphere in a 2012 stunt, died in a paragliding accident in the eastern Italian town of Porto Sant'Elpidio on Thursday.

According to local media, the 56-year-old lost consciousness while in flight and then lost control of his paraglider, crashing into a hotel pool and lightly injuring a young female employee.

Just hours before, he had posted an image in his Instagram story captioned: "Too much wind."

"Our community is deeply affected by the tragic disappearance of Felix Baumgartner, a figure of global prominence, a symbol of courage and passion for extreme flight," the Porto Sant'Elpidio's Mayor, Massimiliano Ciarpella, said in a social media post.

The energy drink company Red Bull, which sponsored many of Baumgartner's exploits, confirmed his death to Austrian public broadcaster ORF, while the Austrian foreign ministry confirmed the reports to Germany's dpa news agency.

Felix Baumgartner's jump from space

Born in Salzburg, Baumgartner made headlines as a spectacular base-jumper for many years, jumping from iconic structures such as the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur and the statue of Christ the Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro.

Baumgartner shot to global fame in October 2012 when he jumped from a helium balloon almost 39 kilometers (24 miles) above the Earth — the highest manned balloon flight and the highest ever freefall at the time.

He reached a maximum speed of 1,342.8 km/h (834 mph), breaking the sound barrier.

Baumgartner, who had a tattoo on his right arm reading "born to fly," regularly posted videos of his paragliding flights on social media.

He once described his passion for adventure with the words: "I belong to the air, I was born for these emotions."

Controversial political views

In recent years, he made headlines of a different sort with controversial political statements, criticizing German and Austrian migration policies and opining that a "moderate dictatorship" would be preferable to a democracy, in which "you can't move anything."

In 2016, he recommended Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban for the Nobel Peace Prize and endorsed a right-wing populist candidate for the Austrian presidency.

Edited by: Kieran Burke