Blaine wakes up to first full day of fast

David Blaine is spending his first full day suspended in a clear plastic box with nothing but water to sustain him in his toughest endurance challenge yet.

The self-styled modern-day Houdini from New York is planning to live for 44 days and nights 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.

Blaine, 30, entered his tiny temporary home suspended between Tower Bridge and the Greater London Assembly building at Potters Field Park at 9.27pm on Friday night and is not now due to emerge until Sunday, October 19 at 9pm.

"I'm not worried about the first three weeks, I'm worried about the second half of this when I start to lose my mind and everything gets really bad," Blaine said shortly before entering the box. I just believe that the feeling of wonder is amazing. I am pushing myself as far as I can humanly push myself. I can only hope for the best and expect the worse."

Up to 4,000 people turned out to see Blaine begin his gruelling challenge. The showman took a photograph of his late mother into the box with him for inspiration.

Dr Adam Carey, who carried out a physical examination of Blaine just moments before he stepped into the box, said: "From a medical point of view, I cannot condone it. From a personal point of view I think he's nuts."

Blaine said of the doctor: "He's saying the area between 30 and 50 days is a complete unknown.".

Billed by the magician himself as "the most extreme exercise in isolation and physical deprivation ever attempted" it is the first time that Blaine, who has a third eye tattooed on his palm, has attempted one of his jaw-dropping feats outside his native US.

Blaine's cramped home for the next 44 days will contain only a pillow and mat, a supply of nappies, a journal, pens and some lip balm. He will ingest water through a tube and doctors at ground level will test his urine daily for tell-tale signs of kidney or liver failure.