£84.4m EuroMillions lottery winner emerges to claim prize

The winner of Britain's biggest lottery jackpot has come forward to claim the £84.4m prize, the National Lottery operator said today. The winning amount, which dwarfs the previous record of £56m won by Nigel and Justine Page, from Barnsley, Gloucestershire, in February, was announced after the rollover EuroMillions draw on Friday. A spokesman for Camelot said that the ticketholder – who may or may or not opt for anonymity – has contacted them but the claim has yet to be validated. "We are looking forward to welcoming the lucky ticketholder to our millionaires club which is already 2,400 strong," he said. It is not clear if the winner is an individual or a syndicate. According to the Sunday Times Rich List 2010, the prize would make the winner the 789th richest person in the UK with a larger personal fortune than the likes of former James Bond actor Sir Sean Connery (£80m), the rock legend Jimmy Page (£75m), and comedian and actor Rowan Atkinson (£70m). Other millionaire winners include Brian Caswell, from Bolton, who won nearly £25m, and the seven-strong Liverpool call centre syndicate that, along with a couple from south Wales, shared £91m between them. While the prize breaks the British record, it is not the largest international win. In 2007 two tickets split a $390m (£258m) payout from the Mega Millions lottery in the US, though prize money is taxable. The Spanish Sorteo Extraordinario de Navidad is said to be the world's biggest lottery but, rather than a single jackpot, it aims for a share-out in which thousands of numbers yield prize money.