Tragedy was narrowly averted when strong winds forced a hot air balloon with 12 passengers on to high voltage overhead powerlines near Pluckley.

All seemed to be going well as the pilot attempted to land in a field on Tuesday, passing clear of power lines alongside the Pluckley Road.

But then a strong gust of wind blew the balloon back towards danger, brushing a hedgerow and dropping down on to the road below. The deflating balloon collapsed over the power lines causing sparks to fly, yet the 12 passengers and pilot managed to escape injury.

Witness Steve Matthews, 56, of Malt Man Hill, Smarden, said: "The recovery vehicle that was following the balloon whisked the passengers away quickly, but they were still lucky. The lines were still live when engineers arrived.

"The basket touched ground three times, but a strong gust of wind came in from the opposite direction blowing the balloon back toward the road it had just crossed. The balloon basket dropped down on to the road. Incredibly there was no traffic passing."

Power supplies were interrupted to 209 customers near Pluckley after the balloon became entangled in live overhead power lines at 8.09pm.

UK Power Networks engineers received a call directly from the pilot reporting the incident and engineers were at the scene within 20 minutes to make supplies safe and restore supplies.

Those supplies were restored to all but 12 customers by 9.35pm and the final supplies were reconnected at 11.33pm. There were no injuries.

The balloon is owned by Airborne Balloons, based at the Hop Farm, Paddock Wood. The company declined to comment on the incident.