Seven pairs of huggers gathered at St Pancras International station this morning to attempt to break the record for the world’s longest hug. The current record stands at 24 hours and 33 minutes.

Among them were Mayella Reynolds, founder of hugging group Random Huggers, and her sister-in-law, who she chose as a partner because she’s of similar height. “Guinness World Records contacted me on Boxing Day,” said Reynolds. “I said I’d be failing in my duty as a random hugger if I said no.”

Random Huggers has members worldwide, spanning Glasgow, Brighton, Madrid and Hong Kong as well as London. “We want this to go global!” said Reynolds.

Stand-up comedian Sanderson Jones was hugging friend Mikey. “Mikey and I hadn’t seen each other for a very long time,” explained Jones. “It was a good way to catch up.” He added that he would be “elated” to break the world record, although “there will be a lull, I expect, four hours before we finish”.

Lorna Tulett, star of BBC’s The Choir, was happily hugging her army officer husband Bryan.

In case you were wondering, the huggers are allowed a five-minute toilet break every hour. Good luck to all the couples!

The world record hug is the first in a series of unique record-breaking events taking place as part of the World Record London campaign