Blaine in the box

American illusionist David Blaine started his toughest endurance challenge yet tonight – spending 44 days and nights suspended in a clear plastic box with nothing but water to sustain him.

The self-styled modern-day Houdini from New York is planning to live for six weeks in a plastic box measuring 7ft deep, 7ft long and 3ft wide, with no distraction, communication or food while dangling precariously over the river Thames in London.