Residents in Kent were stunned to see the Northern Lights illuminating the skies yesterday evening.

The Met Office confirmed sightings across the UK, with skygazers sharing photos of the rare phenomenon over the county.

The lights were spotted by Liz Whitehouse from Reculver Towers in Herne Bay.

She managed to capture a stunning image showing the mix of green, red and magenta colours glowing in the sky.

“A sight I thought I'd never see in Kent (taken via phone camera), the Northern Lights from Reculver Towers,” her husband Adam posted on X alongside her pictures.

The Met Office said the lights were “observed across Scotland, clearly visible from Shetland webcams, and sightings reported across some central and eastern parts of England”.

A spokesperson said yesterday the best chances to see the spectacle, also known as Aurora Borealis, were in Scotland, but “it could be possible as far south as central Wales and England”.

Professor Don Pollacco from the Department of Physics at the University of Warwick said the phenomenon was caused by “the interaction of particles coming from the sun, the solar wind, with the Earth’s atmosphere – channelled to the polar regions by the Earth’s magnetic field”.

“It’s actually a bit like iron filings and the field of a bar magnetic,” he continued.

“The solar wind contains more particles when there are sun spots, as these are regions on the sun’s surface where the magnetic field is interacting with the plasma in the sun, and the particles can be released.

“Once the particles are channelled into the Earth’s atmosphere they interact with molecules and have distinctive colours (eg oxygen molecules produce green light, nitrogen red light etc) and patterns such as light emissions that look like curtains or spotlights.

“These shapes change quickly over timescales of minutes/seconds.”

Did you photograph the Northern Lights over Kent? Send your pictures to news@thekmgroup.co.uk