Ananova:

A sparrow knocked over 23,000 dominoes in the Netherlands, nearly ruining a world record attempt.

The unfortunate bird flew through an open window at an exposition centre in the Dutch city of Leeuwarden.

Employees of television company Endemol NV had been working for weeks setting up more than four million dominoes in an attempt to break the official Guinness World Record for falling dominoes.

"We were so happy we built 750 safety walls. If we hadn't, we could forget the whole event," explained Robin Paul Weijers of Domino Day 2005.

The bird was shot by an exterminator with an air rifle while cowering in a corner.

The organisers are out to break their own record of 3,992,397 dominoes set last year with a new record of 4,321,000.