One ticket was bought in Portugal and the other two in France. The winning numbers were 9, 21, 30, 39 and 50, and the Lucky Star numbers were 1 and 3.

Some 1.4m UK ticketholders won prizes ranging ranging from £179,829 to £7.10.

Camelot, which runs the competition with operators in eight other countries, said sales had gone up by "1200% on a normal week".

The draw, which had rolled over for the past 11 weeks, had been estimated as £125m but Camelot said "exchange rate fluctuations" and the final calculations of ticket sales meant the jackpot came to £126m.

Lump sum

EuroMillions players had to match five main numbers from one to 50 plus two Lucky Star numbers from one to nine to win the jackpot.

A Camelot spokeswoman said: "There has been a record sales rush."

She added: "Over the last 12 weeks £15m has been raised good causes from EuroMillions alone."

The competition is being promoted in the UK by Chantelle Houghton, the recent winner of TV's Celebrity Big Brother.

Camelot said past jackpots in US lotteries had been higher than £125m, but the winners chose a reduced one-off lump sum payment instead of having the full amount paid in instalments.

The draw was also open to players in Austria, Belgium, France, the Republic of Ireland, Luxembourg, Portugal, Spain and Switzerland.

The top EuroMillions winner to date is Dolores McNamara, from Limerick, who scooped £79m last July.