Magicians come in from the cold

Two Lithuanians wearing only T-shirts and sweat pants emerged today from a block of ice, inside which they had spent 63 hours and 31 minutes in an attempt to outdo a similar stunt by US illusionist David Blaine.

Shivering with cold, Arvydas Gaiciunas, 36, and his 29-year-old sister, Diana Gaiciunaite, were greeted by cheers and applause from thousands of onlookers at a downtown square in Palanga, 186 miles west of the capital, Vilnius.

The siblings did not say a word as doctors led them into an ambulance that would take them to a hospital in nearby Klaipeda for observation.

“We know it was very hard to stand in the cold, and we are very proud they could make it,” Palanga Mayor Pranas Zeimys said, moments before the magicians left the transparent cube.

The illusionists were trying to out-do Blaine, who was encased in ice for nearly 62 hours on New York’s Times Square in November 2000.

It was not immediately clear whether they had set an internationally recognised world record.

Since the two Lithuanians entered the cube on Friday, doctors had monitored their body temperature and heart rate through wires attached to their fingers.

Holes had been drilled into the ice bloc to give them oxygen, while they were fed water through a plastic tube.