Months after Folkestone was in the grips of a huge gold rush, several pieces of bullion are still thought to be buried in the sand.

Treasure hunters descended on the town's harbour at the end of summer when the Triennial arts festival kicked off.

However, only eight of the 30 nuggets worth a total of £10,000 have been found, organisers said this week.

Each piece is worth around £500 and hundreds of people were thought to have sought out their small fortune as the sale of digging tools in the town went through the roof.

Metal detectors were also a popular buy despite the precious metal being difficult to find with the equipment.

The pieces were placed in Folkestone as part of the Triennial festival by German artist Michael Sailstorfer

Ioannis Ioannou, from the Creative Foundation, the group which ran the Triennial, said: "We know that eight people have come forward having found gold.

"We don't know how many more people have found some, but decided to keep quiet about it.

"Of course, as part of the project, people were entitled to keep the gold they found.

"An important piece of this project was that we will never know if there is more gold out there, or if it has all been dug up - I personally believe that there is more.

"Even the artist couldn't find it all now, because sand shifts, so there is no way of knowing where it has disappeared to."