Rome  - Spumante sparkling wine was sprayed about Saturday as citizens of the Tuscan medieval hamlet, Bagnone, planned to party through the night to celebrate the purchase at a local bar of the winning 146.9-million-euro (209.8-million-dollar) jackpot prize ticket in Italy's state lottery.

Festivities centred around the Bar Biffi in the central Piazza Roma square, where the winning ticket was bought for 2 euros by an as yet unknown punter.

The winning six-number combination was 10 - 11 - 27 - 45 - 79 - 88.

"We were watching the (televised) football match ... when someone came in and told us that we had won the Superenalotto, so we immediately switched channel and we began hearing the name of our bar," the Biffi's owner, Annamaria Ciampini, said.

"What can I say? I'm not the winner and I have no idea who bought that ticket," she added.

"Everyone knows everybody in this town, so if it's someone from here we are bound to find out," said a reporter for television news channel Sky TG24, Letizia Leviti, who comes from Bagnone.

Situated near Massa Carrara, Bagnone has some 2,000 residents, but can swell to around 3,000 during the summer tourist season.

The identity of lottery winners seldom becomes public in Italy, where the biggest prize won before Saturday's draw was 100.7 million euros, which went last October to the holder of a ticket bought in Sicily.

Saturday's prize topped what is believed to be the previous highest lottery win in Europe when a 25-year-old Spanish woman in May won 126 million euros.

Superenalotto draws in Italy are held three times a week, usually on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays and until Saturday no-one had hit the big jackpot (which increases each week) since January 31, 2009.

The Superenalotto lottery attracted millions of punters undaunted by the odds of winning that were estimated at about 1 in 622 million.

Betting fever also spread abroad with people from neighbouring countries such as France, Switzerland and Austria, hopping across the border to Italy just to buy a ticket.

Popular tabloid newspapers in Germany and Belgium ran their own competitions offering winners free air tickets to fly to Italy to buy Superenalotto tickets. (dpa)