Residents are being warned to lock their front doors when they are at home after a delivery driver entered a woman’s house to deliver her parcel.

The 51-year-old, who wants to remain anonymous, said she got the fright of her life when she went to answer a knock at her front door in Kendall Gardens, Gravesend yesterday afternoon.

She found an Evri delivery man already standing in her hallway. Now, she is warning others to be aware.

“He had taken at least five steps into my house,” she told KentOnline. “I was gobsmacked to find a strange man standing in my hallway.”

The woman said she had been sitting indoors when she heard two hard bangs on her front door and then the door opened.

She said: “I thought it was my daughter coming home early from work and she had knocked for me to help her get bags from a taxi.

“I just got up to open it and in those two seconds it took me to get to the front door there was a man standing in my hallway.”

She said she was so shocked she didn’t even speak to him.

“I just froze, trying to take in the fact that he actually opened my door and entered my property.

“I should have shouted at him.”

She said the man, who was an Evri delivery driver, backed out of the door to take a picture of his delivered parcel in the hallway and then drove off.

An Evri spokesman said: "We are currently investigating the allegation and have made several attempts to contact the customer to get more detail, however we have not yet had a response.”

The woman, who suffers from anxiety and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) said she was left shaken and struggling to breathe after the shocking encounter.

“It didn’t do my breathing any good and had me on edge all afternoon after that,” she said.

And she has vowed to keep her door locked now, even when she is home.

She said she reported the incident to Evri who said they will be carrying out an investigation.

Sarah Partridge, from Hampton Crescent in Gravesend had a similar experience when she ordered a parcel from Amazon.

She said: “We were sat in the front room and heard our front door open and a package drop onto the floor.

“The driver had obviously come into the hall and chucked the package down.

“He rang the doorbell on the way out and ran to his van and drove off.”

She reported the incident to Amazon who referred it to their investigation department.

Now she says her children, who are aged 9 and 14, are terrified someone is going to walk in again.

She said: “They’re autistic and they think it’s going to happen again. It’s scary.”

An Amazon spokesman said: “We have very high standards for the delivery service providers we work with and how they serve customers. We’re looking into this matter.”