Early Christmas lottery winner in Malaga

THE countdown to find Spain’s multimillion-euro winning lottery ticket has started.

All day, winners will be announced until this evening’s draw for the main prize.

The winning ticket for the 4^th prize, 59444, was sold in the Santa Isabel neighbourhood in Malaga city centre.

The lucky Malagueño joins another 9 winners so far and is estimated to receive around €20,000.

The 4^th prize number was announced at 9.14 am today (Thursday).

With up to €2.44 billion of prize money to spread out among the many prize draws, many are hoping their number will come up.

Although nicknamed El Gordo, that is the name given to the top prize which is announced at the end of the evening.

The Spanish lottery is one of the oldest in the world and has been organized every year since 1812 by the Government.

The prize draws, which started at 8am this morning, see people at work and at home glued to their televisions, radios and phones for most of the day as everyone hopes to make it big!