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UDUPI, India, Nov 28 (AFP) - The scarred body of Canadian escape artist Dean Gunnarson tells the tale of his dangerous career.

Gunnarson has broken bones on several occasions and even had to have his fingers surgically reattached after his hand was crushed during an escape stunt in a river.

The 37-year-old models himself on the legendary escape artist Harry Houdini who died in 1926.

Magicians attending a three-day International Magician's Convention in the southern city of Udupi said Gunnarson -- the "Houdini of the 21st century" -- was a living example of how escape artists take enormous risks.

Gunnarson decided to commemorate Houdini's death by escaping from a coffin submerged in Canada's Red River in 1983.

He was handcuffed, chained and laid into the coffin which was wrapped in chains.

"I was struggling inside the icy river for more than four minutes," Gunnarson recalled.

"I was very near to death. But I knew I was not doing to die, though it scared my family."

The magician has also dangled by his toes from a trapeze bar hundreds of feet above a dam and escaped from a shark cage which was lowered into water.

On Sunday in front of a 30,000-strong Indian crowd he was chained and handcuffed and put in a strait-jacket.

He was then hung upside down by his ankles and lifted by a crane to a height of 150 feet (93 metres).

The appreciative crowd cheered as he set himself free within two minutes.

A day earlier Gunnarson performed Houdini's "milk-can escape" when he got out of handcuffs, chains from inside a milk churn filled with water within a couple of minutes.

"This guy is crazy but a very good performer," said US-based magician Shreeyash (eds: one name).

"He is one who stretches the limits. This kind of magic popularises the art."

Gunnarson says he less likely to risk his life now that he is older.

"It is definitely a challenge. I want to do it and as a bonus I get paid for it. Still, however much one is paid, whether it is five or fifty million dollars it is not worth risking your life," he said.

"I have been fortunate so far. In this business you never know which day is the last day in business."

Israel's top magician Guy Bavli, who says he uses telepathy to bend metals and move objects, said magic needed someone "who can do the impossible".

"For magic to survive as an art we need such people. There are some impossible things and somebody has to do them," Bavli said.

Gunnarson said he was planning to write a book and instances about his life which he said would "motivate people to achieve the impossible."

The language of magic can "do wonders to make people smile at time of turmoil and disasters", he said.

"Magic has to be done with passion and love for the art. Then there are no limits," he said.  

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