St Leonards: Driver who stopped to help at ‘accident’ suffers slash wounds in attempted robbery

Police have launched an appeal for witnesses to the incident, which happened on Thursday night (February 3).

Sussex Police said at around 10.40pm on that day, a man was driving along Branksome Road when he saw a person lying in the middle of the road with a white crash helmet on and a moped on the ground next to them.

Two other people, wearing black or dark-coloured crash helmets, were stood in the road nearby.

Believing a collision had just happened, police said the victim stopped his car and got out to check whether the person in the road was okay.

As he did, the person on the ground stood up and one of the others demanded the victim hand over his car keys.

Police said the victim refused and was assaulted by one of the suspects, suffering slash wounds to his hand requiring hospital treatment.

The three suspects left the scene when a vehicle turned into Branksome Road from the direction of Gresham Way.

Police said they left on mopeds in the direction of Filsham Road.

Officers investigating the attempted robbery are appealing for any witnesses to come forward, including anyone who may have captured any relevant CCTV, doorbell or dash cam footage from the area.

Anyone with information is asked to contact police online or by calling 101 quoting serial 1497 of 03/02.