£76m lottery winner has 48 hours to claim prize

THE search for the winner of a £76million lottery jackpot intensified last night as the deadline for claiming on a missing ticket approaches.

The mystery ticket holder selected all seven winning numbers in the November 2 Euromillions draw but his or her chance to claim on the lost ticket expires on Sunday.

The winning ticket was bought in Lincolnshire – in seaside resort Skegness or market town Boston – and the £76,369,806 sum is the largest ever unclaimed prize.

Euromillions have been forced to keep the exact location of where the ticket was bought a secret to protect the winner’s identity but have plastered the area with posters.

However, they fear the winning ticket may have been thrown away – and the winner has just 48 hours to lodge a claim or her or she will have lost the life-changing opportunity.

Lottery chiefs say they only have the discretion to pay prizes for stolen, lost or destroyed lotto tickets if the player has submitted a claim in writing. Then the unsuspecting multi-millionaire has until May 1 to claim the cash.

The winning numbers from the draw were 5, 15, 17, 37, 44 and the Lucky Star numbers were 7 and 11 – catapulting the winner into the same £80million wealth bracket as pop superstar Ed Sheeran and tennis ace Andy Murray.

Previously, the biggest prize to go unclaimed was a £63.8million jackpot won in June 2012 with a ticket bought in the Stevenage and Hitchin area of north Hertfordshire.