A couple were lucky to escape unhurt after their home was struck by lightning during a huge electrical storm.

Three fire crews were called after the house, in Emerald View, Warden, on the Isle of Sheppey, was hit at around 1am on Thursday, sparking a blaze in the roof.

The couple who lived at the home, and want to remain anonymous, were unharmed.

Their daughter told KentOnline: "The house which was hit in Warden was my parents'.

"They're very shaken but otherwise completely fine. They certainly weren't blown out of bed.

"The fire service were amazing and they have some brilliant neighbours who have been amazing and shown them great support since it happened."

Neighbour David Guest said: “There was one almighty bang and everything sort of shook. That was about 1am.

“Quite a few people said they had lost all their internet.”

He added: “I was still up at the time. As soon as it thunders my dog doesn’t like it.”

Mr Guest has a golden retriever called Merlin.

“When it thunders I just sit with him,” he said.

When asked what he thought of the loud bang, Mr Guest said: “I thought ‘Jesus, that was close!”

The 72-year-old has lived in his home for about 35 years but said he had “never heard anything like this happen before”.

Temenuga Marinova, 37, of Emerald View said she couldn’t sleep after the incident.

“It woke us up. Me, my husband and one of my children. It was scary.

“I couldn’t sleep afterwards. It was very noisy, the fire engines were outside.”

When asked what the lightning strike sounded like, the mother-of-three said: “It was a very strong boom; my heart started to beat so fast.

'I knew something was wrong, I was woken by the loudest crackle then a really big bang from lightning'

“I thought something had happened with my children in the other room.”

She added: “I’m just very sorry for the [affected family].”

Another Sheppey woman posted online to say: "I knew something was wrong, I was woken by the loudest crackle then a really big bang from lightning.

"I thought it had definitely hit something close by, but glad everyone is all okay and nobody was hurt."

A spokeswoman for the fire service confirmed it was called out at 1.12am to the roof fire following the lightning strike.

She said: "Three engines attended and crews wearing breathing apparatus used hose reel jets to extinguish any hotspots in the loft space, before removing roof tile to help clear the smoke.

The fire service left the scene at around 4.20pm.

Another lightning strike on the Island, this time at Minster, was captured on camera by photographer James Bell, while a resident of Marine Town over in Sheerness also saw one.

She said: "Me and my daughter were watching it. There was a very big lightning fork that went crack, then some smoke, but the smoke went after a couple of minutes. I've never been so worried."

Last August a lightning bolt hit a farm on Sheppey, killing a horse and a pony.

David and Karen Mosdell, of Danley Marshes Farm in Halfway, lost their beloved Welsh Section D cross, named Harvey, who they had owned for almost 20 years and one of their Shetlands.

Read more: All the latest news from Sheppey