Magic or tragedy? Indian ‘Houdini’ disappears in river at buoy trick
An Indian buoy king, known by the stage name Jadugar Mandrake, who wanted to imitate a trick of the famous illusionist Harry Houdini (1874-1926), probably died in the attempt.
Magician Chanchal Lahiri was on Sunday ‘handcuffed’ from a boat in the Hooghly River near the Howrah Bridge in the metropolis of Kolkata. Lahiri would get rid of his heavy steel chains and ropes and swim to the side of the wide stream.
According to the observations of the public and according to the investigation by the alarmed police, the latter did not happen, reports the BBC. A journalist from a newspaper in Kolkata noted that, just before he started the trick, Lahiri said, “If I do it right, it’s magic and if I do it wrong, tragedy.”
The Indian authorities have started an investigation, but that did not bring the glued magician to the surface. “We are still searching,” said a relative of Lahiri. 21 years ago, the magician defied fate in the same place by entering the water tied up in a glass box from the bridge.
At the time, he succeeded in raising his head completely. “It only took me 29 seconds then,” Lahiri told AFP for his fateful escape attempt at that time.
In an attempt in 2013, it was not the rising water from which he managed to escape, but from the angry audience. He discovered a door in the glass toss and attacked the stuntman.
View images of the stunt below:
