A five-year-old was thrilled to find pearls in a wild oyster on Whitstable beach.

Zoe Bonner, 25, was on holiday with daughter Lilly when they made the exciting discovery with family friend Nicole Payne, from Faversham.

She said: “We decided to have a look for some crabs and then we found some oyster shells washed up.

“Lilly said ‘can you find treasure in oysters?’ so I said 'yes, you can find pearls in them but I don’t think you really get them in the UK'.

Then she picked one up and we opened it, and I couldn’t believe it at first – I thought it was a rock, but we cleaned them and saw they were pearls.

"We must have opened about 40 after that, and didn’t find pearls in any of them.

“Lilly was laughing and screaming - she was so excited that we found treasure.

“There were two white ones, one gold and one brown.”

While some sources say chances of finding a pearl in a wild oyster are about 12,000 to one, Whitstable Oyster Fishery Company says it is relatively common.

A spokesman said: “Small pearls are found quite often in both wild oysters and the Whitstable Rock Oysters that we grow and sell.

"They are usually small and/or misshapen.

“One of the girls at The Forge used to collect them and make jewellery which was cool.

"Unfortunately, however, whilst the ones that Lilly found are nice ones, these pearls are valueless.”