Motorists were left stunned when a wild boar crossed the road in Folkestone.

Traffic came to a standstill when the large animal emerged from the woodland at the top of Hospital Hill by Shorncliffe army barracks earlier this afternoon.

Artist Johnny Cotter, who runs a gallery in Rendevous Street, said: "I was going up the hill and when I got to the top by the army camp there was a huge boar in the road and two cars had stopped.

"It was an old-fashioned looking pig, as high as the bonnet on my BMW.

"It had tusks, hair all over and was dark browny-grey in colour."

He said the animal had run across the road, hit the fence outside the Sir John Moore Barracks and turned around to go back into the woods.

"The people were sitting there with open mouths," said Mr Cotter.

"I know traffic jams can be a boar sometimes but this was something else."

Kent and East Sussex has the largest of three known breeding populations of wild boar in the country.