A Chinese lottery player won the country's largest individual lottery prize -- nearly 360 million yuan (US$52.7 million), according to local sources on Friday.

The unidentified buyer from Anyang City, central China's Henan Province reaped the prize after buying 44 identical "Double Colour Ball" tickets issued by the China Welfare Lottery at a cost of 176 yuan (about US$25.8) at 2:55 PM Thursday, the provincial welfare lottery center said.

The buyer chose the same two sets of two-digit numbers on each ticket, which brought his total number of stakes to 88.

A total of 93 stakes of top prize were gained from Thursday's raffle. Apart from his 88 stakes, the rest five were from Beijing, Shanghai, Heilongjiang, Guangxi and Shaanxi.

The previous lottery record were held by a player in Jiayuguan of northwest China's Gansu Province, who won 113.8 million yuan on November 27, 2007.

The provincial welfare lottery center in Henan held a meeting overnight to discuss how to have the lucky buy cash his prize while protecting his privacy and safety. Details as how he won the prize were not yet available.

(Xinhua News Agency October 10, 2009)