The 44-year-old Chinese lifter Fu appeared set to lose out to Folashade Oluwafemiayo of Nigeria, who had already equalled the Paralympic record with her opening lift of 140kg when she broke that with her second attempt of 142kg and then set a world record of 146kg with her third lift.

However, with the final competition attempt, Fu matched the new world record to snatch the gold medal on bodyweight from her 27-year-old rival.

It completed a remarkable run of success for the Chinese athlete, but the drama was far from over as veteran Fu then extended the world record to 147kg with a fourth lift - although due to Paralympic Games rules on the amount of lifts permitted, the attempt did not count towards the overall competition.

That meant that when Oluwafemiayo also opted for an additional attempt and succeeded for a new world record at 148kg it did not affect the standings, as she too had exceeded the number of permitted competition lifts.

Lin Tzu-Hui of Chinese Taipei took bronze.

Fu said: 'Today's competition was very strong and I am very pleased with the result. Oluwafemiayo was a very strong competitor and I am happy for her for breaking the world record at 148kg and winning the silver medal.'

Meanwhile, Ali Hosseini won Iran's second gold with a 225kg lift in the men's -75kg category.

Rival Mohamed Elelfat of Egypt failed with a third attempt of 224kg to give Hosseini the gold medal.

Hu Peng of China moved ahead of Russia's Sergei Sychev on bodyweight advantage to claim the bronze medal after both men completed lifts of 213kg in their final attempts.
 
France's Souhad Ghazouani broke the Paralympic record as she won gold in the women's -67.5kg category.

World number one Ghazouani broke the record with her opening lift of 146kg, but missed out on a world record 150kg on her final two attempts.

China's Tan Yuijao won the silver medal with a second-round lift of 139kg, while Nigeria's Victoria Nneji (125kg) won the bronze.

Ghazouani said: 'I am still not realising that I won gold. I tried to break my own world record, but it didn't quite work. In training I was lifting 130kg to start with, but then working my way up towards 150kg.'