Ananova:

Hundreds of Croatians painted themselves blue and put on silly hats to beat a world record - only to find they were too late.

A total of 395 people turned up dressed as smurfs in the town of Komin to try and beat the record for the most smurfs in one place.

But when they contacted Guinness officials to register their world record, they were told "sorry - too late". They had been beaten by an English group in Warwick.

A spokesman for the organisers said: "We read on the internet that the record was 290 people held by a group of Americans, and decided to beat it, and we had TV, radio and print media report our success."

Organisers have now had to admit their volunteers wasted their time.

The current record, according to Guinness World Records, is 451 people set by Warwick University Students' Union last July.

A spokeswoman for the Guinness World Records in London said: "Unfortunately the actual record is 451 so they have come up a bit short."

One organiser of the failed Croatian record attempt said: "We could easily have got more Smurfs, but we thought that over a hundred more than the American record we found on the internet would be enough."