Lorry driver rains cash on crowd

Marko Hilgert unloads some of his winnings

A German lorry driver has thrown away tens of thousands of euros after winning a radio competition by promising to do precisely that.

Marko Hilgert pledged to give away three-quarters of the 100,000 euros (£65,800; $129,000) prize money.

He was as good as his word and threw notes onto the town square of Kaiserslautern, in western Germany, as he was suspended above it in a crane.

Some 3,000 people scrambled to collect the notes as they rained down.

Grateful citizens seize their chance to pick up some free cash

Mr Hilgert kept the rest of the prize money to pay off part of his mortgage.

"If I threw three quarters of it out of the window, I would obviously still profit," he said.

"But the people also profit from this, and that's what people realised when they voted for me as the winner of the competition."