Torrential rain flooded homes, shops and offices across Sussex this morning.

More than an inch fell between 6am and 10am, causing drains to overflow and turning gutters into fast-flowing streams.

Driving conditions were hazardous but as the downpour eased off this afternoon, residents and businesses were left clearing up the mess.

Waitrose, in Western Road, Brighton, and BBC Southern Counties Radio in Marlborough Place, central Brighton, had parts of their premises flooded.

Families in Vale Road, Portslade, used sandbags after a main drain once again overflowed, endangering the ground floors of their homes.

Bognor was also hit, with flooding in Shripney Lane, Royal Parade, Central Avenue and East Down View.

Police monitored the situation but did not close any roads.

The huge amount of surface water delayed traffic across the county, especially in town centres.

A spokesman for the Environment Agency said: "This was not river flooding but a huge amount of surface water with nowhere to go."

Several areas in Sussex are now on flood watch.

The agency said although rivers were not at high levels, catchment areas in three areas of the county were on alert, including the Ouse, Uck and Cuckmere.

The spokesman said: "In the last few hours and overnight an inch of rain fell in a fairly short period of time.

"If we had any prolonged rainfall we could have problems but we are monitoring things carefully.

"This particular pulse of rain has moved out of the region and things look like improving for the rest of the week. But there are some flood watches in place."

Last October, floods devastated large areas of East Sussex.

Today people in Lewes, Uckfield and Hellingly were again preparing for the worst as heavy rain swelled rivers.

Hellingly farmer Vanessa Minns, whose home and land were badly affected by last year's floods, said the Environment Agency had worked hard to reduce the danger.