Canadian escape artist Dean Gunnarson is known for his daring stunts and last-second brushes with death – and his latest is no exception.
The Winnipeg native was chained to the tracks of China’s largest wooden roller coaster by his hands, waist, and feet.
But there was a catch: the coaster’s cars were set off down the track, giving Gunnarson only seconds to free himself before the cars collided with him at 55 miles-per-hour.
In the end, 58 seconds is all it took to extricate himself from his chains.
And not a second too soon, as he lept from the tracks only moments before the fast-moving cars rumbled past.
“It was very close. I could see its eyes staring at me, I could feel its breath breathing down on me,” Gunnarson told The Associated Press after the escape. “Wow, my heart’s just pumping. It was close, that one last handcuff I didn’t know if I was going to get it in time.”
The stunt was not only a nerve-racking ordeal for the audience, but it also scared his colleague Cary Tardi.
“I didn’t think that he was going to make it,” Tardi said. “So close. This is it. We are not letting him doing this anymore. Never again.”
Known as “The World’s Top Escape Artist,” Gunnarson is famous for his large-scale stunts featured on live television in over 165 countries around the world.
–With files from the Associated Press
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