Indian police on Monday recovered the body of a magician who drowned while trying to replicate an underwater Houdini-inspired stunt — tying himself up with chains and ropes and being lowered into a river.
Rescue workers late on Monday found the body of Chanchal Lahiri in the Hooghly River, said Syed Waquar Raza, the deputy commissioner of Kolkata police’s port division.
The 40-year-old Lahiri, who was known by his stage name “Jadugar Mandrake” (Wizard Mandrake), was lowered by winch into the river in Kolkata on Sunday in a yellow and red costume.
Photo: AFP
However, the 40-year-old — his legs and his arms tightly bound — failed to emerge from the water, to the horror of onlookers, including his family and team members.
Authorities had initially believed that the vanishing act could be part of Lahiri’s stunt, but immediately mobilized help to rescue him.
Lahiri told reporters before the attempted escape act that he had pulled off a similar stunt 21 years ago at the same venue.
“I was inside a bulletproof glass box tied with chain and locks and dropped down from Howrah Bridge. Then I came out within 29 seconds,” he said.
He admitted it would be tough to free himself this time.
“If I can open it up then it will be magic, but if I can’t it will be tragic,” he said.
He also said he was undertaking the death-defying stunt to “revive interest in magic.”
When Lahiri tried another stunt at the river in 2013, he was assaulted by onlookers who saw him escape from a locked cage via a door that was clearly visible.
He was beaten and punched and his long flowing golden-brown wig was pulled off by the crowd.
Almost a decade earlier, he declared he would walk on the river waters, but had to beat a hasty retreat when the act went wrong.
Harry Houdini, a Hungarian-born American stuntman, became a sensation in the early 20th century with daredevil feats.
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