From a dog skate-boarding through a tunnel of human legs to a man holding lit candles in his mouth, people around the world have been marking Guinness World Records Day with a range of quirky feats.

From the young to the old, some 650,000 hopefuls were said to be taking part in a bid to earn a Guinness World Record title. The day itself was on Thursday.

In Lima, bulldog Otto took the title for "longest human tunnel travelled through by a skate-boarding dog", passing through the legs of 30 people.

On the other side of the world in Japan, Kinichi Ito claimed the record for the "fastest 100 metre running on all fours", with a time of 15.71 seconds.

The record for "most lit candles in the mouth" is now 15 and was achieved by Dinesh Shivnath Upadhyaya in Delhi. He also claimed the title of "the most matchsticks extinguished with the tongue in one minute" at 30.

In Britain, the "tightest reverse parallel park" was claimed by stunt driver Alastair Moffatt who squeezed a Mini in between two cars, leaving a combined space of 34 centimetres.

"Guinness World Records Day unites people across the planet from all walks of life, all of whom have one common goal - to become the greatest in the world at something," Guinness World Records Editor-in-Chief Craig Glenday said in a statement.

Other new records saw the Harlem Globetrotters score a few hoop tricks including "the longest basketball shot made blindfolded" achieved by Thunder Law at 21.18 metres.

His team mate Handles Franklin scored "the farthest kneeling basketball shot made backwards" from 18.47 metres.

Other record attempts were yet to come in the day, such as the largest gathering of people dressed as penguins in the UK.