"This giant weighs 11.3 kilos (24.9 pounds)," Khalil Semhat told the AFP news agency at his farm near Tyre, 85 kilometres (50 miles) south of Beirut.

"I’ve been working the land since I was a boy, and it’s the first time I’ve seen anything like it." Mr Semhat, 56, said he had to ask for help from a friend to get the huge vegetable out of the ground.

He insisted that he had used no fertilizer or other chemicals to produce it.

We’re still looking for the world’s heaviest couch potato: Link – Thanks Jez!