40,000-piece jigsaw puzzle falls, breaks into pieces

WEYMOUTH, England, April 29 (UPI) -- A British jigsaw puzzle maker is seeking volunteers to help him reassemble a record 40,000-piece puzzle he made to commemorate the queen's Diamond Jubilee.

Dave Evens, 60, said he had just completed the 19 1/2-by-8-foot puzzle the day before it fell to the ground and broke into pieces when he was distracted at his Weymouth, England, workshop by a person who had asked him for directions, The Mirror reported Monday.

The "absolute disaster," as it was described by Evens' wife, Margaret, was caught on a webcam.

Evens said he is seeking volunteers to help him reassemble the plywood puzzle, a montage of photos from Queen Elizabeth's Diamond Jubilee, before it is sent to the queen's Sandringham House in Norfolk for display in a week.

"Because it was quite solid and interlocking, parts of the puzzle are still in large sections but there must be well over 6,000 separate pieces to put back together," Evens said.

Evens said he sent documentation of the puzzle to Guinness World Records prior to the fall in the hopes of it being certified as the world's largest jigsaw puzzle.