National Lottery bosses hunt a missing millionaire in Tameside who has until December 28 to claim a £1m jackpot

Andy Carter, senior winners' adviser at lottery operator Allwyn, says he has "searched high and low across Tameside" for the winner of the July 1 draw but found no trace of them. The ticket — matching numbers 5, 8, 26, 33, 39, 42 and Bonus Ball 54 — could be lying unchecked in a drawer or pocket while its owner remains oblivious to their fortune. Tameside covers Ashton-under-Lyne, Hyde, Stalybridge and several other Greater Manchester towns where the ticket was purchased.

If nobody comes forward by midnight on December 28, the £1m prize will expire under National Lottery rules.

A separate £12m unclaimed ticket bought in Rhondda Cynon Taf in June also remains missing, with a Welsh woman claiming she binned her winning ticket after a shop wrongly told her it had lost.

Wednesday's Lotto draw also produced winners: one player scooped £2.8m and two others claimed £1m each, taking the number of lottery millionaires in the past four weeks to eleven.