Left in pieces! Craftsman completes 'world's biggest jigsaw' - only for it to collapse one day later

A British craftsman has been left in pieces after building the world's biggest jigsaw - only for it to collapse before his eyes the day after he finished it.

Dave Evans labored for more than 200 hours on the mammoth 40,000-piece puzzle, which he hand-cut himself using a montage of photos of the Queen's Diamond Jubilee.

But less than 24 hours after painstakingly placing the final piece in his puzzle, the record-breaking jigsaw fell to the ground into thousands of pieces.

The unfortunate moment of the collapse was captured on video as Mr Evans showed off his 150-square-feet masterpiece to photographers and members of the public.

The jigsaw had been resting on a huge frame in his workshop in Weymouth, Dorset, where it was tilted at an angle to stop it falling over.

But when Mr Evans, 60, became distracted by a member of the public, the huge creation toppled to the ground, leaving his wife Margaret to declare it an 'absolute disaster'.

He now has a week to rebuild the jigsaw so that it can go on display at the Queen's Sandringham House residence in Norfolk.

Fortunately, the puzzle-maker had measured and taken photos of his creation for Guinness World Records before the disaster.

Mr Evans has now asked for help from friends in putting the pieces in order and rebuilding his masterpiece.

The design features 33 A2-sized photos donated by the public - each celebrating the Queen’s 60 years on the throne - with a picture of the monarch in the centre.

He faces a daunting task in rebuilding the jigsaw in a week though, as Mr Evans previously admitted the puzzle could take a year to build if it broke up.

Speaking before the puzzle fell apart, he said: "I’m one of the few people who are professionally trained to hand cut jigsaws and I wanted to leave a legacy.

"It's a monster puzzle and it would probably take me about a month just to get all the pieces sorted into their right colours so I could start to rebuild it.

"I couldn't say how long it would take an average person to do this, it's like saying how long is a piece of string.

"The Queen may think I'm mad - but if she ever loses a piece I can always make her another one".

A Guinness spokesperson confirmed there is currently no recored for the largest hand-cut, wooden jigsaw puzzle.

The company will need six weeks to process his documentary and filming evidence to verify his attempt before they can declare Mr Evans a world record holder.