THE record for the warmest Halloween in Britain has been shattered, forecasters say.

The mercury reached 23.5C (74.3F) at Gravesend in Kent, beating the previous high of 20C (68F) set at Dartford in Kent in 1968, the Met Office said.

Charlwood in Surrey and Filton in Bristol also beat the previous record to provide an unseasonably warm end to October that has seen people taking to the beach for a dip rather than wrapping up against a chill.

Supermarket Tesco said the weather had prompted record October barbecue and party food sales.

Serena Fleming said: "Not only is Halloween on a Friday but with the unseasonably warm and dry weather we believe many people will hold parties with festivities spilling out into gardens and barbecue cook-outs around bonfires.

"The weather is even predicted to be sunny and warm on Saturday so we could even see more barbecues taking place then."

The Met Office announced the record was crumbling in a series of tweets this morning and into the afternoon, with first Filton then Charlwood beating the previous hottest mark.

The latest at just after 1pm read: "The warmest #Halloween on record has been broken again with Gravesend recording 23.5C."

Forecasters had previously said 21C (70F) could be recorded today in the South East, eight degrees higher than normal for this time of year, but the temperature went 2.5C past that.

So far, 2014 is the warmest year on record, following consistently mild temperatures which have continued into autumn, weather forecaster MeteoGroup said.

But October will not break any records, despite being warmer and wetter than average.

Nine out of the 10 months this year have seen above-average mean temperatures, with only August below average, the Met Office said.

The UK mean temperature for the month so far is 11C (51.8F), which is 1.5C above average - a few degrees short of the 12.2C (54F) record set in 2001.