KOCHI, June 18: Magician Pradeep Houdino held the spectators spellbound by his `underwater mystery escape' in the Kochi backwaters this afternoon.

As hundreds of spectators waited with bated breath near the Hotel Taj boat jetty, Pradeep was first hand-cuffed, then shackled and chained.

All the chains were then secured together with 10 padlocks. The guests who were present at the show examined the locks. Later he was hung head down from a crane. He was then locked inside a wooden box, which was again secured with four locks.

The crane then carried the box to the lake and immersed it in water. As seconds ticked away, Pradeep surfaced amidst the cheers of hundreds of spectators who had thronged the shores of the lake to witness the rare feat.

He spent nearly three minutes under water before escaping from the box.``Even though the initial plan was to spend 10 min under water, the present show was limited to three minutes as the mud in the seabed began to enter the box making it impossible to stay further,'' a visibly elated Pradeep told mediapersons.

``The success of the underwater escape lies in the amount of time the magician spends under water unlike that of `surface escapes' where the speed with which the magician escapes matters,'' Pradeep said. Elaborate arrangements had been made for rescue operations in case of any eventuality. It was for the first time that Pradeep was performing this feat in Kerala.

Houdini had earlier hit the headlines with his `rail track escape' in 1989 in which he freed himself from the rail tracks to which he was chained, just before the arrival of a speeding train.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.