LAHORE: The youth of Punjab on Saturday in its first attempt break the mass participation record of singing the national anthem here at the National Hockey Stadium.

Adjudicator of Guinness World Records (GWR) Gareth Daeves while speaking to the media confirmed that some 42,813 people had successfully managed to set a new world record people during the opening ceremony of Punjab Youth Festival.

The Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif also arrived to partake and witness the event. The participants arrived at the stadium earlier during the day and practiced the national anthem for hours.

It was earlier reported that 70,000 people had sung the anthem, however the official score put the figure at 44,200.

Guinness World Records adjudicator Gareth Deaves said that he was impressed with the enthusiasm shown by the youth of Punjab and he was amazed to see a big gathering at the National Hockey Stadium.

“It is a very important day for the people of Pakistan, specially Punjab as a big audience has gathered here to create new records in many events including singing of national anthem and creation of Pakistan flag by the audience present in the arena ,” he told the media.

Gareth said that the GWR team was very impressed to see the enthusiasm of the people of Pakistan and he was glad to see the interest of people attempting to create new records for GWR.