Thousands of people had visited the site on Manhattan's Upper West Side where Mr Blaine was buried in a 6-foot-deep hole in the sidewalk. He was in a cramped plastic coffin under a 3-ton water-filled tank.

The BBC's Paul Anstiss reports from New York on Blaine's Houdini feat

When the tank was lifted after almost a week, the magician sat up, smiled and addressed the crowd of hundreds of cheering spectators.

"I saw something very prophetic ... a vision of every race, every religion, every age group banding together and that made all this worthwhile," he said.

Two security guards assist Mr Blaine

He then donned a pair of sunglasses and stepped from the coffin with the aid of two security guards.

Mr Blaine's spokesman Pat Smith estimated that 75,000 people visited the site on Manhattan's Upper West Side.

After he emerged, an ambulance took him to be examined by a doctor.

Cramped quarters

He had spent the week with only about six inches of headroom and two inches on each side.

During the weeklong ordeal, he had only a buzzer to alert an emergency crew standing by. He ate nothing and drank only two to three tablespoons of water a day.

The 26-year-old magician has outdone his hero, Harry Houdini, who had planned a similar feat but died in 1926 before he could perform it.

He insisted it was not a publicity stunt but a test of will.

On Wednesday, two days after he left his plastic coffin, he will appear in a television special, "David Blaine: Magic Man."