MELK, Austria (Reuters) – An Austrian on Saturday kept his cool and set a new world record for standing in a box full of ice cubes, lasting a teeth-chattering two hours, 30 minutes and 57 seconds.
Wearing only a pair of swimming trunks, 42-year-old Josef Koeberl was covered in ice up to his shoulders in a transparent box, his arms crossed against his chest. He beat the previous record for full-body contact with ice of two hours, eight minutes and 47 seconds, which he set himself last year.
“It’s a great feeling, above all the sun – the warmth feels good,” Koeberl told reporters after emerging from his frozen confinement into a balmy afternoon in the town of Melk on the Danube, where a small crowd watched him on the main square.
“I’ll manage to put my socks on myself. The first thing that has to warm up are your feet,” he said.
(Reporting by Leonhard Foeger, Writing by Francois Murphy, Editing by Angus MacSwan)
