Post by Taxigirl on Nov 11, 2003 10:29:05 GMT
The cost of policing illusionist David Blaine's 44-day starvation stunt in London was more than £64,000, the Home Office has said.
Minister Hazel Blears said she had been informed by Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir John Stevens that the bill so far was £64,135.
This was before the costs of policing the final day, when Blaine came out of his glass box over the River Thames.
Half of the cost is being met by a TV company involved in the stunt.
The company was also covering costs such as parking and cleaning incurred by Southwark Council, Ms Blears said.
The TV company was not named, although Sky and Channel 4 were both involved in televising the event for more than six weeks until it ended on 19 October.
Sir John has previously asked Blaine's team to pay for staging the event because of the "considerable expense".
At the time he also expressed concerns about the threat to public order at the site of the stunt near Tower Bridge.
For his next trick Blaine, 30, plans to jump hundreds of feet from a helicopter into a river in what he has termed the "dive of death".