LIGHTNING struck home, blasting a hole in the roof of Mark Nottingham’s home in Pegwell during an electrical storm.

The Labour councillor for Northwood was away on holiday with his family in Scotland at the time but Cllr Nottingham’s parents, Eric and Joan, were house-sitting when the bolt struck the house shortly before 6pm on Sunday.

Mr Nottingham, a retired teacher, was making dinner with his wife when the bolt struck the clifftop house. He said: “At 5.50pm we saw these black clouds and then it started to thunder and lightning so we went inside.

“We were just cooking the tea when there was an almighty bang which sounded like the crack of a rifle and the bang of cannon fire, and the whole house shook.

“We knew we’d been hit because we could feel the closeness and Joan said ‘that’s us’.

“The alarm went haywire and we started checking upstairs. We went outside and saw a hole in the roof and lots of tiles on the floor.

“The strike split a 4ft rafter in half and blew a light fitting off the wall. The automatic garage door opened and we couldn’t close it. The alarm kept going for about two hours.

“We were in shock and we had to sit down.”

Cllr Nottingham was unavailable for comment.