BRITAIN: In a bizarre televised spectacle, the American magician, David Blaine, last night ended 44 days of starving isolation in a perspex enclosure hung from a crane by the River Thames.
He emerged from the box crying and after being weighed was shown to have lost four stone. After a brief statement in which he said he had leaned a lot during his isolation he was taken to hospital by ambulance to see "if there was any long-term damage", the gathered crowd was told.
The heavily-policed crowd gathered from early yesterday beneath arc lights on the river's southern bank and craned for a view from nearby Tower Bridge as a television compere flanked by giant colour screens counted down the seconds to the end of Blaine's performance.
Doctors working with the magician reported that he had been experiencing heart palpitations and shortness of breath in the hours leading up to the finale. Blaine said last week that he was looking forward to brushing his teeth.
He is expected to stay in hospital for a few weeks, being treated first intravenously as food is reintroduced gradually to avoid further physical trauma.
Throughout the stunt, Blaine (30) kept a diary, snippets of which he read on television comparing his ordeal to the final agony of his mother, who died of cancer, and saying the experience was the most difficult of all his stunts, which have included similar acts of sponsored, self-imposed suffering for public entertainment.
He said he had been hallucinating, and suffering headaches, sharp muscle pain and a bad back. The refracted sun had been fiercely hot and nights freezing cold. The taste of his saliva changed as he began to starve, and his heart beat had become irregular.
While Blaine looked far from emaciated as he staggered from his confinement. As the weeks progressed, Blaine became listless and appeared to spend much of his time lying down or sleeping. Sometimes he would stand and lean outstretched arms on the side of his casing when television helicopters did scheduled flyovers.
Organisers said he subsisted on water pumped into his box through a tube and denied he was supplied with nutrients.
Blaine will receive a reported £600,000 from broadcasters that paid for live television and documentary rights.
From early yesterday, Sky TV employees handed out flyers urging onlookers to go home and watch the final spectacle on television. Blaine is also expected to profit from book and film prospects.