The 34-year-old winner of a R145m ($10.8m; £8.4m) lottery in South Africa says he kept his lucky ticket in his sock, the local Times Lives news site reports.

The man, who has preferred to remain anonymous, told Times Live that he felt the ticket would be safest in his sock in case robbers broke into his home at night.

He also kept the ticket in his sock when he went to work.

"I kept on thinking that what if I was involved in a car accident. You know how people lose their wallets in accidents‚ so it was safer there‚" he told Times Live.

The 34-year-old married man is an engineer in the small mining town of Secunda in South Africa's eastern Mpumalanga province.

The new multi-millionaire and his wife collected the money on Tuesday after he won the lottery on Friday. He spent R20 on his winning ticket, according to the local eNCA news site.