David Blaine, the American stunt artist, had to be plucked by divers from a glass bubble aquarium in a New York plaza after starting to black out during an attempt to break the world record for holding one's breath underwater.

Blaine, who had spent a week in the tank in full public view, was attempting to break the record of eight minutes and 58 seconds while simultaneously freeing himself from chains and handcuffs in a televised stunt last night.

After taking his last breath, Blaine hung motionless in the tank for almost five minutes, encouraged by his trainer Kirk Krack, before removing his handcuffs.

But his mouth began to quiver as he struggled with the chains around his feet and nearly seven minutes into the stunt the divers were sent into rescue him. His final time without breathing was seven minutes and eight seconds, almost two minutes short of the record.

After being given oxygen, Blaine addressed the large crowd that had gathered around the 8-ft bubble on the plaza of the Lincoln Centre for the Performing Arts in Manhattan.

"I am humbled so much by the support of everyone from New York City and from all over the world," he said. "This was a very difficult week, but you all made it fly by with your strong support and your energy. Thank you so much, everybody. ... I love you all."

Dr Murat Gunel, an associate professor of neurosurgery at Yale University School of Medicine who heads Blaine's medical team, said before the attempt: "He is pushing his body insanely to the limits."

Dr Gunel and other medical experts had been monitoring Blaine’s condition 24 hours a day from an adjacent tent filled with medical equipment and machines.

He said that the challenge had taken a toll on the magician’s body, including liver damage, the sensation of pins and needles in his feet and hands, some loss of sensation elsewhere, and rashes all over his body, which glistened pale white in the tank.

On Sunday, the 33-year-old illusionist, wearing a diver’s helmet with a two-way communication system, said that he would "give it my best shot" to complete the feat despite peeling skin, sharp pains in his joints and a severe earache.

Blaine had started training in December, losing 50lb (22kg) so that his body would require less oxygen

As early as the second day of his challenge, Dr Gunel said, there was evidence that Blaine was suffering liver failure. "I told him he needed to get out of the water, and he refused me," Dr Gunel said. "He said he did not want to let the people down."

All day yesterday, curious onlookers lined up to walk past the sphere. Linda Brady, of New York City, brought along a boom box and loudly played Jennifer Lopez’s My Love is All I Have. Blaine appeared to respond by bopping to the beat.

"I just love him," Ms Brady said. "He has a creative mind just like me, and he’s crazy just like me."

Another spectator, David Linker, said Blaine symbolised "man’s strength to go beyond what normal people can do."

Blaine’s previous stunts in New York included balancing on a 22in circular platform atop a 100ft pole for 35 hours, being buried alive in a see-through coffin for a week; and surviving inside a massive block of ice for 61 hours.

In London in 2003 he fasted for 44 days in a plastic box suspended near the Thames.

Times Recommends

• 'Radio Rancid' is scourge of Obama
• French gulp as global warming alters wines
• Colton, the barefoot boy bandit, outfoxes sheriffs