A 12-mile police chase along the West Sussex coast ended when a stolen car hit a parked vehicle and ploughed into a building.

A police helicopter and several patrol cars pursued the car from Rustington, along Worthing seafront to near Shoreham power station in the early hours of Saturday.

Two youths in the car escaped serious injury. One, aged 17, was charged with aggravated vehicle taking and is due to appear at Worthing youth court on Thursday.

A police spokesman could not confirm whether the stolen Ford Escort had rammed another car off the road at the end of the chase.

Mark Oliver claimed his Vauxhall Cavalier, parked on the seafront in Southwick, was hit by the Escort which then ploughed into a building.

Mr Oliver, 45, who runs the Bodycare repair business in Albion Street, Southwick, said: "If you saw the state of the Escort wouldn't believe anyone got out of it uninjured let alone run away.

"If it wasn't for my car being there, they would have crashed into the corner of our workshop and died."

Paramedics took one youth with minor head injuries to the Royal Sussex County Hospital.