Two Palestinian brothers have claimed a $5m (£3.1m) lottery prize for a ticket they bought at their parents' store in the US six years ago.

Andy Ashkar, 34, and his brother Nayel Ashkar, 36, came forward with the winning ticket in March, just 11 days before the top prize in the "$500,000,000 Extravaganza" lottery would have expired, the New York Lottery said.

Andy Ashkar said he bought the ticket at his parents' store in Syracuse in 2006 and decided to share the winnings with his brother, officials said.

The agency said the younger brother said he waited so long to claim his prize because he was concerned the windfall could "negatively influence" his life if he didn't plan properly before being publicly introduced as the winner.

Andy Ashkar also told lottery officials that he also didn't want the windfall to influence his engagement and subsequent marriage.

Calls to phone numbers listed for the Ashkar brothers went unanswered on Wednesday.

Nayel Ashkar's wife, Sara, told The Post-Standard newspaper of Syracuse that news of the win was spreading fast, with family and friends calling to express their surprise and excitement.

"It's crazy. (It's) hard to believe. It's still sinking in," she said.

The brothers' mother, Wasa Ashkar, said her husband, Neyef, sold the winning ticket to Andy at the couple's Green Ale Market, but she couldn't remember exactly when.

She said she and her husband were Palestinians from Jerusalem, who immigrated to the United States nearly 40 years ago and have owned the shop for 12 years.

"I'm happy. Of course I'm happy," she said.

Lottery spokeswoman Carolyn Hapeman said the brothers claimed their prize at the agency's headquarters on March 1.

Unlike winning tickets for games such as Lotto and Mega Million that expire in a year, tickets for scratch-off games expire a year after a game is retired.

The Extravaganza game was retired on March 12, 2011, Ms Hapeman said.

She said the announcement of the winning ticket was delayed for seven months partly because of a fraud investigation, which is always carried out when the winner is related to the owner of the store that sold the ticket.

"It’s part of our routine procedure to put that on retailer hold, where our investigators contact the folks who presented the winning ticket, and also the people from the store,” Ms Hapeman said.

How many people will wait that long to claim the money.. It not as if they millionaires.

I would have made profits with wise investments with that money.

On the other hand, they could have also squandered it been that young.

something is fishy about this story:
first of all, the fact that the parent of the winner holde a store that sells thes tickets should be an alarm bell........ I remember a story where a guy went to check his lottery ticket, the attendant said the ticket was not a winning one, then kept it to cash it himself.

second, why did they have to wait until a few days before the expiration date? what were they REALLY afraid of?

third, one brother bought the ticket and "decided" to share the winnings with his brother?! sounds more to me like daddy gave his two sons a winning ticket, for them to share equally!