EuroMillions Winner 'Devastated' By Win

An Irish woman who won Europe's largest lottery jackpot is said by neighbours to be "devastated" at the win.

Dolores McNamara from Garryowen, County Limerick, scooped £77m (112m euros) in the National Lottery Euromillions draw.

She is understood to have gone into hiding because of the interest generated by the win.

Her friend Geraldine Donohoe said: "She is a lovely person. She married and she raised a lovely family. She more than deserved what she got."

Mrs McNamara checked her ticket in a pub on Friday night to discover she had won the prize, accumulated after nine successive roll-overs.

However, she will not be able to claim the prize until next week.

The National Lottery in Ireland said it could not confirm there was a winner until the person came forward with the winning ticket.

"Obviously is it all over the papers, but there is a formal procedure," said Paula McEvoy of the National Lottery.

"The offices will be open on Tuesday but it would be mid to late next week at the earliest, that the person would get the money, because of the magnitude of the amount.

"The funds would have to come from abroad it is up to the winner, however, they may choose not to come in for two-months. They have 90 days from the day of the draw."

Euromillions tickets are also sold in the UK, Austria, Belgium, Portugal, France, Luxembourg, and Spain.

The National Lottery operates Euromillions in the Republic of Ireland.

Friday's winning numbers were 3, 19, 26, 49 and 50, and Lucky Stars 4 and 5.

To win the Euromillions jackpot, players need to match five main numbers from 1 to 50 - and 2 Lucky Star numbers from 1 to 9.

Europe's previous biggest lottery draw prize was £72m (105m euros) won on the Italian Superenalotto in May.

The UK's top Euromillions jackpot winner is Marion Richardson, from Gateshead, who won £16.7m on 9 April, 2004, two months after the game was launched.

The largest UK National Lottery jackpot win in history was £42m shared by three ticket holders on 6 January, 1996.

The UK's biggest single winner revealed to date is Iris Jeffrey, from Belfast, who won £20.1m on 14 July, 2004.

The world's largest individual jackpot prize was taken by Andrew Whittaker, who won $314.9m (£197.4m) in the US playing Powerball in 2002.