The fried chicken and waffle joint BIRD, which opened at Hempstead Valley Shopping Centre in Gillingham on Friday, has been forced to close temporarily due to an equipment failure.

A sign on the door reads: "We are sorry but we have had to close our doors due to an equipment failure.

"We are doing our best to resolve the issue as soon as we can."

Staff were in and around the store this morning, on the phone and appearing to be busy finding a solution to the technical error.

The eatery is one of the franchise's first outside of London where it has restaurants in Islington, Camden, Canary Wharf, and Brixton.

The Gillingham store is located next to Frankie and Benny's at The Venue, Hempstead Valley Shopping Centre.

The manager at Bird said: "We should be back up and running tomorrow. Fingers crossed we will be open tomorrow morning hopefully."

The restaurant re-opened the following day and said that they are delighted to be back open for customers.

For more news on big brands and good places to enjoy a tasty bite, head to our Eat, Drink, Shop section

Head to our business page for all of the latest news about businesses in Kent

Read more: All the latest news from Medway