A group of visitors were trapped in a popular park as a result of a "couple of unfortunate coincidences".

The sightseers had entered the Westgate Gardens in Canterbury via a vehicle access gate in St Peter's Place near Tower House.

But when they ventured around the park late on Saturday morning, they discovered all of the other gates were locked.

The visitors returned to the entrance near Tower House in a bid to leave the gardens, but to their shock, these gates had been locked too - leaving them trapped.

Despite police being contacted about the incident, it was a nearby punt operator who saved the day as he climbed over a wall and keyed in a code to the gate, allowing the group to leave.

John Huxtable, 75, told how he had arrived at Westgate at 11am where he saw the pedestrian entrance near Tower House was locked, but a neighbouring vehicle access entrance was open.

"A few of us went in and wandered around," the Broad Oak Hill resident said.

"It was in a terrible state with bottles and rubbish blowing everywhere.

"When I got to the Toddler’s Cove area there were people waiting to get through.

"There are many exits to Westgate Gardens but they were all locked and bolted.

"We didn’t realise we were locked in straight away so we were in there for about 30 minutes."

A group of about 10 people - which included tourists and children - gathered in the car park at Tower House, believing they would be able to exit the same gates they entered through.

Mr Huxtable added: "I phoned the police because a couple of the visitors were from abroad and were getting concerned, but they couldn't do a lot.

"There were three tourists who were bemused by it.

"It’s not only that the gates were shut, it was all the rubbish. There was a strong breeze that morning and there were bottles everywhere and some of the stuff was blowing in the river."

As the visitors waited for a city council worker to potentially unlock the gates, a man was alerted to their struggles and came to the rescue.

"As luck would have it, one of the punters came over on his punt, got out and climbed over the wall to the gate," Mr Huxtable said.

"He then punched a code in and let us out. It’s not very good for tourism though, is it?"

The gates to Westgate Gardens are usually unlocked by 8am but there was a staffing issue which meant the park was not opened until late morning.

In June and July, the park is usually closed at dusk, which is about 9pm.

A city council spokesman said: "We had a highly unusual situation on Saturday morning when a short term issue with staff availability meant we could not unlock the Westgate Gardens or carry out the normal cleaning.

"This was rectified by late morning and we have not had the same problem since.

"However, we have subsequently been made aware that a small number of people managed to access the park via the vehicle access to Tower House and then could not get out again.

"We apologise to those who found themselves in this position, through what was no more than a couple of unfortunate coincidences."