Residents said they were disturbed in the night by drilling coming from the Hinkley Point C construction site.

People living up to 18 miles (29km) away in Dunster said they heard loud drilling in the Bristol Channel close to midnight on Friday.

Hinkley Point C apologised and said it had “notified residents living near the site” there might be noise disturbance.

Residents as far away as Nether Stowey, 5.6miles (9km) and Watchet 12 miles (19km) also said they could hear it.

Sue Goss lives about 600 metres from the western boundary of the Hinkley C site in Stogursey.

She told BBC Radio Somerset the noise woke her up on Friday night and was different from usual.

“Sometimes you get a bit of noise from the generators, but you get used to that.

“Friday was different. At about 23:30 BST I was woken up by some very strange banging noises.”

Ms Goss said she tried contacting people about the noise but could not reach anyone at that time of night.

Andrew Cockcroft, senior stakeholder relations manager at Hinkley Point C, said: “Over the next three months, Hinkley Point C will move into the final phase of its marine works.

“We have notified residents living near the site that this activity has the potential to cause intermittent noise disturbance.

“We will monitor noise levels and are committed to ensuring these works are delivered with minimal disruption to residents and apologise for any inconvenience caused.”

Ms Goss said: “Unfortunately, there is nobody actually monitoring the noise 24 hours a day on site, so of course they only know about it when it is reported to them by residents.

“It is down to local people to say: ‘Hang on, this is not good enough, this is affecting our lives.'”