US NewsIndian magician ‘Wizard Mandrake’ feared dead after attempting dangerous Houdini river stunt

French high wire artist Philippe Petit walked across a tightrope suspended between the World Trade Center's Twin Towers — that stood around 200 feet (61 meters) apart — in New York City, New York, U.S., on Aug. 7, 1974. This feat was performed 1,350 feet (400 meters) above the ground and lasted 45 minutes. Without a safety net and using a balancing pole, he made eight passes along the wire.

Swiss daredevil Freddy Nock set the world's highest tightrope record with a walk between two Swiss mountaintops — Biancograt (11,588 feet/3,532 meters) and Piz Prievlus — on March 20, 2015. During the stunt, Nock negotiated an altitude difference of 164 feet (50 meters) without any safety equipment. His feat broke the previous world record set by Philippe Petit in 1974.

High wire artist Kane Petersen successfully walked a tightrope 984 feet (300 meters) above the ground at Eureka Tower on Sept. 16, 2015, in Melbourne, Australia. Petersen crossed the 69-foot (21-meter) distance twice without any safety net, despite developing a leg cramp during the act. It was the highest tightrope walk ever in the southern hemisphere.

Car in crash that killed teen driver (13) was dangerously defective, says garda

Car in crash that killed teen driver (13) was dangerously defective, says garda

WATCH: Indian magician drowns in Houdini inspired stunt – Jun 18, 2019. comments Leave a comment. — ORIGINAL STORY: An Indian stuntman known by his stage name, Jadugar ( Wizard ) Mandrake , has gone missing after he tried to conduct a Harry Houdini trick in the Hooghly river on

The popular Indian magician , known by his stage name “ Wizard Madrake”, is feared to have drowned in the river Ganges in the Indian state of West Bengal on Sunday while performing a magic show there. However, a police search and rescue operation for the missing magician is still ongoing.

On July 18, 1970, aerialist Karl Wallenda crossed the 750-foot-deep (228 meters) Tallulah Gorge in Georgia, U.S., on a tightrope (pictured). Luck, however, evaded the German-American daredevil in 1978, when he fell to his death while attempting to walk a cable strung between two hotel towers in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Karl Wallenda's great-grandson, Nik Wallenda, is also a high wire artist, and has multiple Guinness World Records under his belt for various acrobatic feats. He became the first person to walk a tightrope stretched directly over the Niagara Falls, crossing from the U.S. side of the Horseshoe Falls to the Canadian side — covering 1,800 feet (550 meters) in 25 minutes — in June 2012 (pictured). The next year, he went on to become the first person to cross a Grand Canyon gorge on a wire.

In 2011, he completed the 100-feet-long (30 meters) high-wire crossing between the two towers of the Condado Plaza Hotel in San Juan, which Karl Wallenda had failed to achieve. He also finished the highest incline tightrope walk with a 15-degree angle between two Chicago skyscrapers in the first half and then went blindfold for the second half, in November 2014.

Bomb squad rush to Armagh graveyard after drug police find suspicious device

Bomb squad rush to Armagh graveyard after drug police find suspicious device

In August 2015, Wallenda walked a tightrope, 10 stories above the ground, that stretched around 1,560 feet (475.5 meters) over the Milwaukee Mile racetrack at the Wisconsin State Fair. It was the longest wire walk he had ever completed.

Canadian tightrope walker Jay Cochrane set multiple records through his long career. Some of his notable achievements include skywalking for more than 2,000 feet (610 meters) at a height of about 1,340 feet (408 meters) over the Yangtze River in China in 1995 and traversing the 1,300 feet (396 meters) distance from Skylon Tower to the pinnacle of the Hilton Fallsview Hotel above Niagara Falls in Ontario, Canada, in 2012.

Russian extreme sports star Valery Rozov successfully BASE jumped off the Mount Everest, from an altitude of 23,687 feet (7,220 meters) in May 2013 (pictured). In October 2016, he also created the highest BASE jump exit point record, leaping from around 25,262 feet (7,700 meters) from Cho Oyu in the Himalayas.

In May 2013, professional slackliner Reinhard Kleindl of Austria walked a highwire in front of the Frankfurt skyline — setting the world record of walking the highest urban highline at 607 feet (185 meters).

Irish tourist dies suddenly after kitesurfing in Portugal

Irish tourist dies suddenly after kitesurfing in Portugal

Slackline athlete Andy Lewis set the world record for the longest urban highline walk by crossing a 480-feet-high (146 meters) and 360-feet-long (110 meters) wire strung parallel to the Las Vegas Strip in Nevada, U.S., in October 2013. The wire was rigged from two of Mandalay Bay’s towers.

Adili Wuxor set a world record for the longest period of tightrope walking, at 198 hours and 33 minutes, across the Beijing National Stadium, also known as Bird's Nest, in July 2010.

Saimaiti Aishan, the nephew of Adili Wuxor, successfully walked on a 49-feet-long (15-meter) tightrope connected between two hot air balloons at a height of 100 feet (30 meters), in China's Hunan province in August 2011. Aishan went ahead with an even more daredevil act in January 2015, when he spent 72 hours on a tightrope 164 feet (50 meters) above the ground.

In August 2015, Gary Rothwell became the champion at the World Wheelie Championship 2015 held at Elvington Airfield, where he achieved the speed of 197.8 mph (318 kph).

Jaguar introduced the 2017 F-Pace model in a rather adventurous manner at the 2015 Frankfurt Auto Show. With British stunt driver Terry Grant behind the wheel, the F-Pace beat the Guinness World Record for the largest loop drive by successfully speeding round a colossal 62.6-feet-tall (19 meters), 360-degree loop. In July 2017, Grant and the car manufacturer created another record — world's farthest barrel roll. Driving E-Pace, Grant achieved a spectacular 50.2-foot-long (15.3 meter) barrel roll.

Stuntman found dead after magic trick in River Ganges goes wrong

The body of an Indian magician who drowned when his Houdini-like escape stunt went wrong has been recovered from the River Ganges. Chanchal Lahiri, also known as Jadugar Mandrake, was tied up with ropes and steel chains for a magic trick and was lowered into the river on Sunday while his friends and family watched from the river bank. Rescue services launched a frantic search for the stuntman after he failed to reappear. An Indian stuntman who entered the Ganges river tied up with steel chains and rope went missing, Sunday, June 16, police said.

China's Dawazi Aisikaier walked backwards on a wire strung 656 feet (200 meters) above a gorge, with his eyes covered in July 2012 in Yueyang, Hunan. However, he was unsuccessful in his attempt as he fell off the wire with 131 feet (40 meters) to go, but survived the fall that was broken by trees.

Robbie Knievel jumped 228 feet (69 meters) across the Grand Canyon in May 1999. He, however, lost control of his bike while landing and suffered a crash.

In May 2012, British skydiver Gary Connery became the first man to leap 2,400 feet (731.52 meters) and safely land without using a parachute. His descent to the ground after jumping from the helicopter took less than a minute, and a pile of cardboard broke his crash on the ground.

While filming a video for DC Shoes, Robbie Maddison created history by riding his modified dirt bike on the strong and turbulent waves of Tahiti, Polynesia, in August 2015.

Travis Pastrana created a world record for the longest jump made in a rally car when he jumped off California’s Pine Street Pier on Dec. 31, 2009. Travis flew his Subaru 269 feet (81 meters) off the Long Beach Pier onto a floating barge.

Skydiver Jeb Corliss jumped from a helicopter from more than 6,000 feet (1,830 meters) above the ground to become the first man to fly through the Tianmen Cave in a wingsuit, in Zhangjiajie, China, in September 2011.

Former Swiss pilot-turned-jetman Yves Rossy (in blue gear) and Vince Reffet (in red gear) flew over Dubai's landmarks like superheroes, using a jetpack in May 2015.

The Cuyahoga River caught fire 50 years ago. It inspired a movement.

On June 22, 1969, Cleveland's filthy river ignited for the 13th and last time. It and other American rivers are dramatically cleaner today.

American actor Ormer Locklear surprised the crowd with his daredevil wing-walking stunts in the early 20th century. One of his premium stunts was to switch from one plane to another mid-air.

(Pictured) Locklear walks on the wings of a crashed airplane in a still from the film "The Skywayman" (1920).

Multiple Monster Jam world champion Tom Meents pulled off a double back flip in a monster truck at the Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts, U.S., in June 2015.

In October 2014, former Google executive Alan Eustace jumped from over 25 miles (40 kilometers) up in the stratosphere and reached a speed of more than 800 mph (1,300 kmph) to break Felix Baumgartner’s 2012 record.

Jamie O'Brien, a professional free surfer from Hawaii, performed a daredevil stunt when he lit himself on fire just before hitting a wave in Teahupo'o, Tahiti, in July 2015.

The French urban climber, also famous as 'Spiderman' for his feats, climbed the 2,717 feet (828 meters) of the world's tallest building, Burj Khalifa in Dubai, in six hours in March 2011.

Hungarian-American illusionist and stuntman Harry Houdini performed the first public show of one of his most remembered escapes from the Water Torture Cell in Berlin, Germany, on Sept. 21, 1912. He was known for performing unimaginable stunts like being buried alive or handcuffed and drowned.

Charles Blondin, a.k.a. Jean-François Gravelet, gained fame and fortune with his idea of crossing the Niagara Gorge on a tightrope. Performing the stunt for the first time in 1859, he repeated it several times with variations. (Pictured) A vintage engraving showing Blondin performing the tightrope walker act at Shoreditch, London, circa 1870.