According to BBC News, it has been claimed that a 17.8-ton sculpture of a dragon could have "obliterated" a world record.

The mythical creature has been created using 50,000 horseshoes by artist and self-taught welder Jim Poolman.

Eddie Powell, owner of The Sculpture Park in Surrey, says Poolman first offered two smaller works, but was told to make something bigger. He returned 12 years later with the dragon.

Powell says they would be applying to set the world record.

The Guinness World Records website reports the record for the largest horseshoe sculpture is held by Tennessee farrier Donnie Faulk for a life-size horse made of 1,071 horseshoes.

Poolman's sculpture is described as "not just a dragon but a tableau", telling the story of a village bringing a dragon from the sky with arrows and stones.

"It's partly collapsed," says Powell, "brought to the ground, in its death throes." Tens of thousands of old horseshoes were provided by farriers in Hampshire —some of them were used whole and others cut into smaller pieces.

"A complete horseshoe is quite limiting in what it can be made into," says Poolman.

"But the small parts are remarkably versatile and highly effective in recreating the appearance of skin, feathers, bone and muscle."

He says he put the dragon together over 12 years, using a forklift truck and scaffolding, suffering injuries and burnt clothing in the process.

Powell first viewed the dragon at Poolman's Camberley yard and says, "If the yard had been a foot longer, the dragon would have been a foot longer.

"It's so huge, it's completely different to anything else on earth."