A ticket-holder who matched all six numbers on a July 6 draw entry bought in the north east of the borough failed to claim the £9.4 million prize.

The money will now go to the Lotto's Good Causes fund which has already funded projects worth £17 billion.
A National Lottery spokesman said: "Unfortunately I can confirm that the ticket-holder did not come forward within the deadline to claim their prize and has now sadly missed out on this substantial amount of money. To avoid this unfortunate situation happening again, I would urge all National Lottery players to check their tickets on a regular basis.

"We tried very hard to find the ticket-holder and it's a real shame that they have missed out but there is still one winner - the nation."

Several local people made claims to lottery organiser Camelot that they had won but, said the company, its investigations failed to show enough evidence in each case.

The prize is the largest amount to go unclaimed since the lottery started 11 years ago. Under the rules of the game, the exact location of where the winning ticket was bought will not be made public.