He stands just 50 cm tall – the average height for a newborn baby. But Khagendra Thapa Magar from Nepal is a 14-year-old boy who isn’t going to grow any further.
Now he’s been invited over to our fair city by the Guinness Book of World Records, who want to verify his dual claim as world’s shortest and lightest person. (We presume there’s some qualifying restriction here, ruling out babies, foetuses, zygotes and the excessively amputated.)
A spokesperson for the special ‘Academy’ looking after the family said:
We would be encouraged if the government provided two-way fares, including other essential expenses of Khagendra, his parents, a representative of the academy and an interpreter.
If only they’d worked out the timing. A month ago, they could have claimed the little fellow as hand luggage and saved money.
London’s no stranger to the short and the tall. We reported last year on a meet-up between the world’s most lofty man and tiniest stuntman. The Magar family would do well to avoid taking little Khagendra to the Old Operating Theatre museum near London Bridge, though. He’d be horrified to see the dubious specimen jar pictured above, which purports to contain the head of London’s smallest woman.
