One Lottery ticket now worth pounds 22.5m

One lucky ticket holder could today be coming to terms with scooping a massive pounds 22.5m in the National Lottery, the largest ever prize in the UK. The ticket correctly matched the six winning numbers - 12, 15, 26, 44, 46, 49.

But the organisers, Camelot, said tonight they were still unable to say if the multi-million pound rollover jackpot would be paid out to one person or whether a syndicate would be sharing the fabulous wealth.

The jackpot haul would catapult a single winner into a life of luxury and into the ranks of some of Britain's most wealthy people.

The total exceeds the previous best single win of pounds 17.8m, scooped by an Asian man from Blackburn, Lancashire in December. However the unnamed father-of-three has told the News of the World that his lottery win had turned him into a recluse, unable to trust people and forced to change his name to prevent neighbours at his new luxury home from discovering his true identity.

Six other lucky punters were celebrating winning pounds 628,947 each after matching five numbers plus the bonus number 14, while 535 ticketholders picked up pounds 4,408 for matching five numbers.

The total prize fund for last night's draw stood at pounds 42,792,984, but some hopeful punters were forced to join long queues at ticket outlets across the country yesterday after a computer failure with a satellite link at Camelot's headquarters.