Blaine reveals his inspiration

David Blaine broke his silence today, claiming he was finding "beauty in suffering", and the stunt is inspired by his mother's death from cancer.

Though one condition of the stunt is to keep communication to a bare minimum, at 3am the illusionist opened a side trapdoor in his plastic box by Tower Bridge and spoke to a group of musicians who had been singing outside the fence.

In a weak, slow voice, he paid tribute to his mother Patrice, who died from ovarian cancer when he was 17. " I watched my mother die a beautiful death when I was a kid," he said.

"She was starving, she had cancer and she had surgery all the time, and yet she managed to smile, and find love in the worst of conditions.

"And that's what I think this is for me. Its my way of finding beauty in suffering, because I think life is poetic and I think the spirit is much greater than flesh. Love is everywhere, love is inside."

He added: "What this is for me is a way of exploring that the spirit is greater than the flesh."

The crowd applauded him and sang John Lennon's Imagine.

Later, London art student Joe Dixon took his clothes off and paraded in front of the compound.