Blaine to be suspended spinning for three days

The magician David Blaine's latest stunt will see him dangle 40ft above New York's Times Square in a spinning gyroscope for almost three days before he attempts to escape from his shackles, he announced yesterday.

The illusionist, 33, will hang, exposed to the elements, with his arms and legs outstretched.

"The idea of continuously spinning was interesting to me," he said, before admitting that he was a "little bit" nervous. "We've done everything we can to make it as safe as possible, but there's always that element of risk."

The stunt, which will raise money for the Salvation Army, will begin on Tuesday at 10am. Blaine said he had chosen the charity because when he was growing up in Brooklyn his mother used to get his clothes from it.

His last major challenge, in May, was cut short when he struggled to escape from chains inside a water-filled sphere. Though he had planned to hold his breath for a nine minutes, he was pulled free after seven.

In 2003, he survived for 44 days without food or water in a glass box suspended by the River Thames in London.