Indian magician dies attempting Houdini trick

Mumbai: A 40-year-old Indian magician drowned in West Bengal attempting one of Harry Houdini's most famous tricks, police confirmed.

Chanchal Lahiri disappeared in the Hoogly river Hoogly trying to escape from a cage underwater near Howrah Bridge in Kolkata, the capital of West Bengal.

Lahiri is known as Jadugar Mandrake (Wizard Mandrake) in India.

Eyewitnesses said Lahiri was lowered into the river shackled in a six-foot-tall cage with six locks for the underwater escape act and failed reemerge.

Following his disappearance in the river, onlookers who had gathered to watch him alerted police.

"Soon after receiving the news about his disappearance in the river, we rushed to the spot, pressed in our divers to trace him but for hours there was no trace of him," a police official told international media. "Later on his body was traced some 1 km away from the spot. It had been washed away due to current in river."

Lahiri was meant to escape and swim to safety like Houdini.

Houdini was famous for his ability to escape from chains or handcuffs or straitjackets or padlocked containers.