Lotto draw farce sees 'winner' declared millionaire live on TV before prize is TAKEN AWAY seconds later

Technical problems with the complicated system used for drawing names out of a drum are being blamed for Andreas Bürkli’s win having to be annulled.

Swiss public TV channel SRF apologised to him and he was reported to have been a “good sport” about the error.

They are looking at how they can make it up to him, Blick reported.

All seemed to be going well when his name was pulled out of a drum and read out by German singer Herbert Grönemeyer on the television show Happy Day.

A ticker-tape fanfare and a briefcase loaded with cash greeted his apparent life changing good fortune.

But it soon became clear there had been a technical blunder.

Potential winners paid £8 to enter and sent their tickets back to lottery operator

Swisslos in the hope of winning the 1 million Swiss Francs – around £800,000 – prize.

Ten lots were entered into the final draw and ticket owners had to be ready by their phones, the BBC reported.

More names were held in reserve to be added if someone was not contactable.

But some were not to be reached and confusion broke out leading to a lottery official mistakenly put 11 lots into the drum manually as time began to run out, the BBC reports.

When Mr Bürkli's name came up, Grönemeyer called his number but he did not answer either.

In a later statement, a Swisslos official apologised and said the draw had to be carried out manually because of technical problems.

It said 11 names were loaded into the drum "in the hectic rush" rather than 10, and the extra one had been drawn.

A new draw will be made and the winner will find out after Christmas.

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