Two sisters followed by the same man in a car while out running on separate occasions in Herne Bay are warning others to be on their guard.

Beth and Katelan Martin say they were trailed by a strange man in a silver Ford Focus on separate evenings.

He eventually drove off, but not before leaving the girls spooked.

Beth, who works at Bay Running Shop in Canterbury Road, says she had been out jogging between 7.30pm and 8pm with her mum on Monday but the pair had split up, with plans to regroup further along the route.

But as she ran along Hampton Pier Avenue, a car began to trail her.

“My mum is a slower runner than me, so I ran past her,” she said.

“As I passed the church and shop I noticed a silver Ford Focus pull up and start slowly driving alongside me.

“I thought it could be a delivery driver from my other job but I didn’t know the car.

“It was weird – the guy wasn’t saying anything and he didn’t open the window.

“Then he drove ahead and stopped so I had to run past the car again.

“As I got to the end of the road he stopped at the junction even though there were no cars, but then he turned off right towards Whitstable and drove away.

“I wasn’t too shaken up but when I told my mum she said to keep an eye out and to be careful.”

Beth, who lives in White Willows with her family, decided not to tell her sister so not to scare her, thinking it was just a one-off incident.

But when 16-year-old Katelan went out for a run the following evening, at an earlier time, she called her mum in a panic saying she had been followed by a man in a silver Ford Focus all the way along Sea Street and Fitzgerald Avenue.

Beth said: “We hadn’t said anything to her so she knew nothing about what had happened to me.

“She rang my mum absolutely petrified. He had followed her but in a different area.” Beth says she is keeping her wits about her and warns others to be aware.

“I couldn’t really see what he looked like but I think he was wearing a beanie hat,” she added.

Both incidents have been reported to police.