A fault with a supermarket giant's card payment system left scores of customers across the country queuing for extended lengths of time to pay for their groceries this afternoon.

Asda customers across the UK were not able to pay with the card 'chip and pin' system on Sunday October 30.

The failure hit stores in Kent including Kings Hill, Gillingham Pier and Canterbury.

Unconfirmed reports noted stores that may also have been struck by the technical fault included Broadstairs, Folkestone and Ashford.

Asda confirmed that at around 12.45pm the Canterbury store temporarily paused trading in order to rectify the system issue.

This meant the store were unable to welcome new customers for 15 minutes to fix the problem and the store traded normally for the rest of the afternoon from 1pm.

Asda have not confirmed how many stores have been affected nationally.

Shoppers have told of their experience.

Jennifer Ede went to the store in Pier Road, Gillingham, this morning and described the scenes as "crazy".

She said: "It was crazy and no signs up to say cash only! Queues galore and at the cashpoints too."

Two customers described visiting the store in Maidstone Road, Chatham, close to Blue Bell Hill.

Niiki Ruth said: "I was at Asda when they went down. Trolleys of frozen and perishable foods left everywhere and manic queues at the cash points. Absolutely crazy!"

Jodie Francis claimed the Medway store also stopped taking cash.

Shoppers at Sittingbourne's Asda store in Mill Way said people were queuing in the aisles as they waited to pay.

One man likened the scenes to customers panic buying bread, milk and other essentials when snow is forecast.

But shopper Sherrie Bruce said the Sittingbourne store "wasn't too bad" and staff dealt with the problem well.

She said: "They had staff at the entrance warning all shoppers that the chip and pin machines were down. The shopping was being scanned through by the staff and if you were paying by card, a receipt was taken to customer services where they used the old swipe machines to take a print of your card and your signature.

"Queues were long, but the car park was packed. It's always busy on a Sunday."

Customers at the Tunbridge Wells store in Longfield Road also praised staff for how well they handled the situation.

Becky Lavender visited the shop at 12.30pm and said: "Tunbridge Wells had clear signs saying cash only plus the staff pointing people in the right direction - no busier than a normal Sunday down there."

An Asda spokesperson said: “We are in the process of resolving a technical issue with our card payment system in stores.

"We're continuing to process payments as quickly as we can but apologise to our customers for the inconvenience this has caused.”

More as we get it.

Have you experienced problems paying in Asda today? Let us know. Email multimediadesk@thekmgroup.co.uk