A gunman attacked by angry staff and customers as he tried to raid a Kemp Town store may have been responsible for other Brighton robberies.

Police are linking Saturday’s attack at the King of GSM shop in St James’s Street to another robbery at a Ladbrokes betting shop earlier on in the evening.

And they are also looking at the possibility the same person could have carried out the two raids as well as an armed robbery at the Ladbrokes shop three days earlier.

The Kemp Town raid happened at 8.20pm, and when police arrived they found a man being restrained by the four staff and customers in the shop.

Officers arrested him but before he could be questioned he had to receive treatment for facial injuries.

He was brought out of the shop on a stretcher with a white sheet covering him.

Crowds gathered around the shop, which was cordoned off by police, taking pictures on their mobile phones.

Just 20 minutes earlier, a man entered the Ladbrokes shop in First Avenue, Hove, and escaped with cash after holding up staff at gunpoint.

It followed a raid at the same shop on Wednesday, in which a masked man entered the shop at 9.20pm wearing a black stocking over his head.

He pointed a black handgun at the manager and demanded money from behind the counter before escaping.

He was last seen walking west along Church Road.

He was light skinned or of mixed race, in his early to mid-20s, 6ft and of average build.

He had short, black hair and was wearing a grey tracksuit, a cardiganstyle top with a light T-shirt underneath, grey tracksuit trousers and light trainers.

No one from Ladbrokes was available to comment last night.

Officers were last night looking through CCTV footage recorded in the area to see if it showed exactly what happened in and around the two shops.

The 24-year-old man restrained at King of GSM was kept in at the Royal Sussex County Hospital overnight before being released in the early hours of the morning.

Last night, he was being questioned by police on suspicion of robbery and attempted robbery.

Anyone who saw any of the robberies should call Sussex Police on 0845 6070999 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555111.

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