A live escape room challenge pitting competitors’ logic, problem solving and teamwork skills to the test is set to be launched in Ipswich this year following the success of a venture in Cambridge.

Ipswich Escape Rooms has been set up by Newmarket couple Isaac and Stefanie Reed, who own the Cambridge Escape Rooms, and lodged a planning application to convert an empty unit on the Dencora Business Centre in Whitehouse Road as its base.

The challenge has become a nationwide craze and features teams of up to five people being locked in a room with just 60 minutes to solve a series of clues and tasks using elements of the room that will unlock the door in the time limit.

And after the Reeds noticed that lots of Ipswich and Suffolk competitors were attending their Cambridge site, the pair decided to launch one in Ipswich.

“We are very excited to be opening the town’s escape room,” said Isaac. “After a fantastic year, we have decided to expand to Ipswich. We are very excited about the rooms we have planned, and can’t wait to welcome our first intrepid teams!”

The escape rooms will be open seven days a week, and if plans are approved could be open as soon as March or April.

The application said: “Ipswich Escape Games is currently seeking to locate to Ipswich due to the high demand for this type of activity. There are currently more than 200 such games in the UK, with a distinct lack of venues in the east of the country.”

The plans are currently in the consultation period and will go before planners in February, but the project has already gathered support online with almost 1,900 Facebook likes despite the room being yet to open.

Isaac said: “We have had a lot of customers from the east of the region [at Cambridge Escape Rooms], and decided there was clearly a demand for this type of activity in Ipswich.

“My passion for escape rooms begun in Budapest, July 2014. I played an escape room here as part of my stag do, and I absolutely loved it.

“It was challenging, fun, and unlike anything else I had tried before. The adrenaline rush was immense and we were all talking about if for days afterwards.

“When I got back to England, I decided I had to open one myself. Two years later and Cambridge Escape Rooms was born.”

The couple are keeping firmly tight-lipped over what the challenge will entail and whether there will be a theme in a bid to keep the room as authentic as possible, but players can experience the game themselves once open this year.