A record gathering of around 3,000 zombies haunted Herne Bay last night for what is thought to have been the biggest festival of the undead in the country.

The hugely popular Zombie Crawl combined with Halloween on Saturday for the first time in its five year history.

Encouraged by the popularity of television hits like The Walking Dead and Z Nation, the make-up and costumes of participants have become increasingly dramatic over the years.

Big crowds are massed by the clocktower at 6.45pm with the crawl setting off at 7.15pm on a circular route and returning to the seafront for a fireworks display at 8pm.

Later a family-friendly Zombie Ball took place at the King's Hall.

The event was being organised by the BayPromoTeam.

Chairman Gerald McCarthy said: "Having the Zombie crawl fall on Halloween obviously helped enormously.

"You got lots of extra trick-or-treaters joining the fun, so there were lots more witches and warlocks involved.

"We even had a police van turn up and when they opened the door we realised they'd converted it into a Halloween grotto."

Mr McCarthy says the increasingly popular event has become the biggest of its kind in the country.

"We had a couple of thousand last year and a thousand more last night and on top of that a couple of thousand spectators."

For more pictures see Thursday's Herne Bay Gazette.