‘Tallest' man hands over title

An asylum seeker who was claimed to be the world’s tallest man has fallen short of the title - but he has the biggest hands, Guinness World Records said today.

Somalian Hussain Bisad, from Neasden, north-west London has now been measured by officials. His height is 7ft 6.5ins.

However, Guinness will still recognise a previous measurement of the giant taken in September last year, which bizarrely records him as being an inch taller.

Some newspapers reported that the 27-year-old had been measured by doctors at 7ft 9in, taller than the previous record holder, 7ft 8in Tunisian Radhouane Charbib.

A spokesman for Guinness World Records said: ‘‘We are recognising his height as being 7ft 7.5ins, which means he is the tallest Somalian and the second tallest man in the world. He also has the biggest hand span of any living man.

‘‘Because they are so tall, people like that become tired very easily and find it difficult to move around.

‘‘While he was with us he was doing a hell of a lot of media work and it is thought that is why he lost so much height.’’

Guinness is also looking into the possibility that the difference in height between Mr Bisad and his twin sister Khardra, who is about 5ft 5ins, is a world record.

The Somalian was measured using a standard procedure for recording official heights which involves taking six measurements during a single day and then finding the average.

This is because people are at a different height when they wake up from when they go back to bed.

Mr Bisad, who has size 26 feet, told The Sun when the potential record first came to light: ‘‘I’m still growing and getting taller every year.

‘‘I’m proud to be the tallest man in the world and proud to live in England.’’

His agent refused to comment on previous claims that he was the world’s tallest living man.

She said: ‘‘All I know is that we will be having a press conference where we will give all the official measurements.

‘‘People look to exaggerate things when they think they’ve got a story - what we are going to do is give the official statistics.’’

Mr Bisad, who sleeps in a 9ft bed at his rented house, came to Britain after fleeing a civil war in Somalia in which robbers shot him in the knee.

He travelled by lorry to Ethiopia before getting on a plane to the UK, where airline staff had to allocate him two seats.

The Home Office has now given him permission to stay in Britain indefinitely because he is deemed a legitimate asylum seeker.