LONDON, November 21 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Onlookers gasped and covered their noses, but watched fixated as maverick German professor Gunther von Hagens conducted Britain's first public autopsy in 170 years despite the risk of arrest.

More than 200 people were left standing in the rain disappointed as they failed to get one of 500 seats at Wednesday evening's sell-out event. Some were medical students, others had just come to satisfy their morbid curiosity, Agence France-Presse (AFP) said.

In the audience were staff from Channel 4 television, who had come to film the event, and anatomy professors sent by Scotland Yard after Britain's top government anatomist warned that the autopsy could be illegal.

The Metropolitan Police confirmed that police officers attended the event and "made notes of what went on."

"Police have received about 30 complaints so far from members of the public," a spokeswoman added, and a file was to be sent to prosecutors to decide if criminal charges should be laid, said AFP.

Jeremy Metters, the British government's inspector of anatomy, had warned that von Hagen's stunt would be "a criminal offense under the Anatomy Act" since neither the professor nor the venue had obtained post-mortem licenses.

But speaking on BBC radio, von Hagens said he believed he was "on good legal grounds" in holding the event at an art gallery in Brick Lane, east London.

Before proceedings got underway, the audience was informed that the corpse was that of a 72-year-old German man who had drunk up to two bottles of whisky a day and was a heavy smoker for the last 50 years of his life.

The man had donated his body to the Bodyworld exhibition, which catapulted the professor into the public spotlight when it opened in Britain earlier this year, showing preserved human corpses in a variety of poses.

There was a general gasp from the audience as Von Hagens whipped off the white sheet covering the corpse.

Moments later the professor, wearing a trademark Fedora hat, made his first incision. "Whenever a critical step is taken I will advise you for you to close your eyes if you choose," he told his audience.

He then made a Y-cut across the man's chest and down to his pelvis before beginning the internal examination.

As the corpse lay with the man's hands fixed by his side, the metal table rocked with the rhythm of von Hagens' sawing.

"As you can see it takes some strength," he explained. "I'm a little bit slow, but usually I go much more slowly."

As the professor worked, his colleague said a little about the man's life.

People in the audience sitting directly behind the head of the body flinched as the professor cut from ear to ear across the skull before loosening the skin of the face and placing his hand inside the cavity.

He then produced a hacksaw, and could be heard sawing into the skull to take a cross section of the brain for examination.

The theater, in which a murmur of conversation could usually be heard, fell totally silent as the audience listened to the hacksaw's progress.

"The bone is of course quite strong and it takes some time to go through the skull," von Hagens said. "I listen, and from the tone I know when I end."

Several spectators covered their faces as the man's silvery hair was parted by the hacksaw but the professor, still wearing his hat, appeared entirely unmoved by the process.

With the chest fully exposed, von Hagens stuck his hand in deep and, with the help of a colleague, yanked up a huge portion of innards.

He declared: "I have liberated the lungs and the heart."

The professor then went on to "liberate" the lungs from the heart.

In all, eight organs are removed in a standard autopsy: the heart, both lungs, liver, spleen, kidneys and the brain.

At 8.20 pm (2020 GMT), von Hagens announced a half-hour break and the audience was allowed into the well of the theater for a closer look.

As crowds pressed closer to the body, which gave off a powerful stench, the professor and his assistants were happy to point out features close-up.

Michael Wilkes, head of the ethics committee of the British Medical Association, which represents 126,000 doctors in the country, said he hoped the public autopsy would not be repeated.

"The entertainment value was pretty high for some people, with possibly some educational value as well," he said. "But it was more of a sensational event and I don't think the limited education aspect justifies the degrading and disrespectful way in which it was done."

In Islam, which sanctifies human body dead or alive, von Hagens’ dissection of a dead man’s body to a paying audience would be much criticized.

Prophet Muhammad, Allah’s peace and prayers be upon him, prohibited a gravedigger from breaking a dead man’s bones.

Jabir Ibn `Abdullah, may Allah be pleased with him, said: “One day we accompanied the Prophet, Allah’s peace and prayers be upon him, in a funeral of a person. When we reached the graves, we sat down. The gravedigger brought out a bone - of a leg or another organ - and began to break it. The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said: ‘Do not break it, for breaking this bone, even after the death of its owner, is like breaking it while he/she is alive.’”

The rules and objectives of Shari`ah (Islamic law) indicate that if there is a benefit behind dissecting a dead human body, leading to establishing the cause of death or restoring back a right, then dissection is permissible in this case.

It is permissible to dissect the dead body of a person with the aim of discovering diseases or finding out a treatment or knowing the functions of bodily organs and the component of human body.

It is also permissible to carry out this process for the purpose of knowing the reason that caused the death of a person, and this will be useful for homicidal investigation.

Using the bodily parts of a dead person is also permissible for the students of medicine who do so as a way of training. However, this is to be carried out in a place specialized for that purpose and not open for everybody.