Winner of $758.7m Powerball lottery jackpot revealed as Mavis Wanczyk

The winner of a $758.7m (£593.7m) Powerball lottery jackpot in Massachusetts has come forward to claim her prize.

Mavis Wanczyk was revealed at a news conference as the recipient of the biggest single lottery prize in US history.

Ms Wanczyk, a health worker from Chicopee, said: "Last night I didn't realise I had won. Today, as I'm driving here, I was like 'this isn't true'.

"And now it's like, er... I am a winner. I'm scared but I'll be ok. I'm just coming down from all that.

"I just want it to be just me, be alone and be able to figure out what I want."

She said her dream was to retire in 12 years' time and "it came early".

As a result, she has called her employer and told them she will "not be coming back".

Ms Wanczyk revealed she had been talking to a work colleague at the moment she found out she had scooped such a huge amount of money.

She had joked that she might have won before telling him: "I know, it's never going to be me - it's just a pipe dream."

The 53-year-old described how she checked off her numbers one by one before her colleague took a look at her ticket and told her: "You just won."

Ms Wanczyk added: "I couldn't drive anywhere. I couldn't do anything. He followed me to make sure I was safely home. That's how I found out. From him."

Deborah Goldberg, the Massachusetts treasurer who handed over the cheque, said: "A lot of people will be coming at her, in order to try to recommend all the sorts of things she can do with her money.

"We are standing ready to make sure she and her family have the resources they need to make the best decisions."

Earlier, lottery officials in Massachusetts were left red-faced after announcing the wrong location for where the winning ticket was bought.

They originally said it was purchased by a Powerball player at the Handy Variety convenience store in Watertown near Boston .

But shortly before 8am local time, officials admitted it was actually sold across the state at the Pride Station and Store in Chicopee - a four-hour drive away.

The Watertown store missed out on the $50,000 (£39,000) prize for selling the winning ticket, which will instead go to the Pride store.

Bob Bolduc, owner of the Pride store chain, said his winnings would be donated to local charities.

The odds of winning the jackpot were one in 292.2 million.

It was the second-largest lottery prize in US history, after three people shared a $1.6bn (£1.25bn) prize in January last year.

On Wednesday night, the winning ticket correctly matched the numbers 6, 7, 16, 23 and 26, and the Powerball number 4.