Domino record toppled in Singapore

By David Bottomley
BBC correspondent in Singapore

In Singapore a new world record has been set for the longest solo domino topple.

Ma Lihua, who is from Beijing, single-handedly set up and then knocked over more than 303,000 dominos.

Her figure smashes the previous record of 281,000 set in 1984.

It took Ma Lihua more than six weeks to set up the dominos.

The tiles were 15 km long

Each day she would work for around 12 hours, displaying the total concentration and steady hands needed to put each tile in place without knocking over all the others.

Her greatest problem, though, was something she couldn't easily control.

On a number of occasions cockroaches got into the hall at the Singapore Expo where the record attempt was being held.

They knocked down thousands of dominos, undoing days of work and making Ma Lihua cry.

To stop the insects creating any more chaos, sticky traps were placed all around the hall.

It took just four minutes to topple the dominos. Only six failed to fall and a new record was comfortably set.

Now Ma Lihua has her eyes on the group domino toppling record, which stands at 3.8 million tiles.