Student attackers to be arrested

Police were planning to arrest gang members who have been beating up young foreign students staying in Lancing.

In the latest attack, eight French students were beaten up near Crabtree Lane, on Monday evening, and two others were assaulted as they walked along North Road last Wednesday evening. One suffered a broken nose and the other cuts and bruises.

Police are treating the attacks as racially motivated and want to stamp down on the problem as quickly as possible.

Host families are being warned not to let their students go into the town late at night and to tell them to stay away from the railway station area if possible.

All of the victims were aged between 13 and 15 and some of the attacks happened at midnight.

Operation Colombus, which was set up to investigate racially-motivated attacks on foreign students two years ago, is being used to look at these latest incidents.