World's tallest man admits he was worried he was going to step on the smallest person on the planet

The world's tallest man admitted he was scared he might step on the world's smallest person during their historic meeting.

Both meets were slightly marred for the big man though, who was naturally a bit worried about trampling them.

In an interview on Discover with Ruhi Cenet, Kosen said: "I kept asking officials to keep them away from me.

"I was very afraid to accidentally step on them and break their bodies.

"Also, I never heard what they said, they talked, but I didn't hear their voices."

So, it might not have been the greatest of meet-ups for Kosen, but the photos are good, aren't they?

The Turk stands at 251 centimetres (8ft 2.8), however, the BBC got wind of a chap in Ghana who was apparently even taller, so they went to verify the claim once and for all.

Sulemana Abdul Samed - better known by his nickname 'Awuche' - was told during a recent checkup that he had grown to 9 ft 6in (2.89m), though the measurement was dubious at best.

The 29-year-old was diagnosed with gigantism a few years back, and in his appointment to address the various complications that come with the condition, he was asked to stand against a measuring rod.

The nurse was stunned to find he had outgrown it, and soon a crowd of colleagues had gathered around to help figure out how best to determine his height, eventually opting to use a pole as an extension above the scale.

Keen to validate this estimate, the BBC visited Awuche armed with a 16ft tape measure - though finding a building tall enough for him to stand against proved an issue.

Once they found one, Awuche took off his shoes - fashioned from tyres and nails by a local handyman, due to a lack of shoes in his size - and stood with his back to the wall, while his neighbour stood on a stool and marked his height with a piece of charcoal.

It confirmed that Awuche is... 7ft 4ins.

So it's actually pretty impressive that nurses managed to land more than two feet off the mark with their improvised pole measure estimate.

But while he may not be the tallest man in the world at the moment, he thinks he could still break the record yet.

"I'm still growing tall. Who knows, maybe one day I may get to that height too," he said.

Lofty ambitions indeed.