A man who found one of the hidden pieces of gold on Folkestone beach says he will treat his girlfriend to a romantic trip to Paris.

Kevin Wood and Kirsty Henderson were on their second day of digging to find some of the £10,000 of buried treasure at Outer Harbour beach near Sunny Sands as part of the Triennial.

Mr Wood, from Canterbury, said it was a "one-in-a-million" chance when they found the nugget at about 7pm last night.

He said: “Basically we had quite a laugh the first day we went down there so Kirsty suggested we go again.

“Everyone was there with metal detectors and I didn’t think we would have much luck ahead of them.

“Kirsty picked a random spot and we kept digging.

“I was getting quite disheartened and I was ready to give up to be honest, but Kirsty was still excited and said we could find one.

“I carried on a little bit and it just popped out. I was quite excited.

“It wasn’t very deep – it was only about 10cm down so I wasn’t expecting to find it.”

The 28-year-old said he just popped it in his pocket and didn’t make a big fuss.

He added: “It seems like a million to one chance with all that sand there and all those people going for it.”

The installation, entitled “Folkestone Digs”, is funded by Bristol-based designers Situations and the idea for the project came from Berlin-based artist Michael Sailstorfer.

The small gold bars - similar to a dog tag - come in two sizes, worth around £250 and £500.

Mr Wood’s was one of the larger 20g pieces. “We’re planning a trip to Paris on the Eurostar,” he said.

Despite the find he said they will return today and thinks it’s been good for Folkestone.

He added: “It’s encouraging people to go down there. I hadn’t been to Folkestone for about 10 years.”