Six vehicles were wrecked as vandals went on the rampage in residential streets early today.

Three vehicles were torched and three others sent hurtling down steep hills, smashing into a road sign, tree and wall.

One ended up dangling over an embankment, yards from a railway line.

The worst attack happened in Colebrook Road, Withdean, Brighton, where a caravan and two cars were destroyed by fire.

One car, a Vauxhall Astra, was just three weeks old.

The elderly owners were woken by explosions at about 6am.

Hazel Lickfold, 75, and her husband Doug, 80, came downstairs to investigate.

Mrs Lickfold said: "We saw this bright light and looked outside. A big tree right next to our house had burst into flames."

The Astra, Mrs Lickfold's Volvo and the couple's caravan on the driveway were gutted.

Their garage, just feet from their house, caught fire but firefighters stopped the flames spreading.

In the same road, a window of a Citroen Picasso people carrier was smashed and the handbrake was let off.

The vehicle rolled down the road and crashed into a sign post.

Two other vehicles nearby were wrecked in the same way.

One crashed into a tree close to the railway line in Withdean Road and another slammed into a wall in Woodside Avenue, near Preston Park station.

Police had been out in force in Brighton last night until the early hours of today on Operation Shaft to catch car criminals.

One man was arrested and a suspected stolen car was recovered.

Police said they did not believe the vandal attacks were retaliation for the police operation or a displacement of the car-crime problem in the city.

Inspector Steve Curry said: "Police have been criticised for not turning up at incidents but, unfortunately, no one called us immediately or soon after these attacks happened.

"Had they done so, we would have had a sporting chance of catching the culprits.

"That said, we will be fully investigating the crimes and we will be hunting the vandals. We will catch them."

He appealed to witnesses or anyone with information to call Brighton and Hove police on 0845 6070999.