A coffee shop boss has captured on camera what appears to be a tornado in the skies above east Kent.

Stunned Matt Day was travelling along the A299 Thanet Way near Herne Bay at 3pm when he saw the swirling black funnel ahead.

The 27-year-old, who runs a Costa shop in Margate and was with three friends, said: "We couldn't believe what we were seeing.

"It definitely looked like it was a tornado and had a spin on it.

"As we were driving along it was moving away from us.

"My friend made a joke about a cow being sucked up into it, but it was actually quite scary seeing something like that.

"We went under a tunnel and looked back, but it had gone. We could only see the black clouds."

Matt and his pals were on their way back to Broadstairs from V Festival in Birmingham when they spotted the tornado.

Matt said: "We had a great weekend. This was the last thing we expected to see on the way home."

Meanwhile April Austen reported seeing what appeared to be a tornado from her back garden in Herne Bay.

She said: "I spotted (it) from my garden in Herne Bay and thought it was just a cloud burst of rain, but maybe it was related to the possible tornado sighted by others.

"The clouds were certainly moving in opposite directions at the time into each other and swirling, which was weird to watch."

Tornadoes are defined as violently rotating columns of air in contact with the earth and dense clouds.

Most have wind speeds of less than 110mph and are 250ft across.

They typically travel a few miles before breaking up.

Did you see the tornado? Send your pictures to news@thekmgroup.co.uk.