Rune Naeri ate 187 oysters in three minutes

The 12th annual International Hillsborough Oyster Festival began on Friday.

The event was expected to attract thousands of visitors over the course of the two days.

At last year's event, Norwegian Rune Naeri ate 187 oysters in three minutes to smash the world record.

Organiser Derek Patterson - who came up with the idea - said he hoped that the record would be broken again.

Whoever attempts to break the record has a tough act to follow - Mr Naeri had to swallow more than one per second to earn his place in the Guinness Book of Records.

'Tourism attraction'

The existing world record was 97.

Many other events - apart from oyster eating - are held at the festival.

"Creating an event that would become a major tourism attraction, as well as popular with Hillsborough residents and people from other parts of Northern Ireland, was one of our objectives when we launched the event back in 1992," said Sean Hall of the organising committee.

"We are delighted by the high level of interest within Northern Ireland and the growing appeal of the festival overseas."

Once again the Ulster Cancer Foundation will benefit from the event.