THE identity of two British winners who shared Europe's £90m lottery remained a mystery last night, 24 hours after they scooped the jackpot.
The hunt was on to find the lucky ticketholders after lottery operator Camelot said there had been no valid claimants to the prizes, worth £45.57m each.
They have 180 days following Friday night's EuroMillions draw to collect the UK's biggest ever lottery win, or the money will be split between good causes.
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"We are looking forward to the winners coming forward," said a Camelot spokesman. "We have no valid claims so far."
The win puts the ticketholders ahead of Angela Kelly, a Glasgow postal worker, who banked nearly £35.5m in the same competition in August 2007. It is not known whether the tickets were bought by syndicates or individuals. If they were individuals they would qualify for The Sunday Times Rich List top 2,000.
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A spokeswoman for the national lottery - part of Camelot - said last night: "We have plenty of champagne on ice and are looking forward to welcoming the lucky ticket holders to the national lottery millionaires club."
Since the national lottery began 15 years ago, 2,300 millionaires have been created. The three largest lottery prizes won in Britain are all from the EuroMillions game. Prizes are much bigger than the Lotto because the game covers eight countries other than the UK. The biggest winner was a 25-year-old woman from Spain who scooped £110m in May this year.
Philip Beresford, who compiles the Rich List, said the winnings were similar in size to the £40m fortunes of Sir Cliff Richard and Kate Moss. He added: "If the winners have any sense they'll keep very, very quiet about it or go and live in Monaco, where they'll just be two of 1,000-odd millionaires."