A Sussex trader told today how he ran after armed raiders who shot a security guard in the face.

John Booth, owner of Old Town Antiques, ran after the pair as they fled the scene in High Street, Hastings.

The security man was shot in the lower face and mouth as he struggled with the two men, who were trying to steal a case of cash from his van outside Shelley's food shop.

Christmas shoppers looked on in horror as the two men escaped, leaving their victim bleeding in the street.

Mr Booth heard the commotion and immediately gave chase as they ran through Post Office Passage into Winding Street.

Mr Booth said: "I was in my workshop and I heard a bang. I looked up through the window and saw two shadowy figures running up the road so I ran outside. The van's alarm was sounding and guessed that something was amiss.

"I headed down and was told that two people had run down the road. I went down the road but had lost them. Then someone told me that they had seen two men go down an alleyway.

"I ran down there where I saw a man looking a bit shell-shocked. He was delivering to a shop and had his car bashed into by their getaway car.

"He managed to take down the registration number and give it to the police."

The security guard suffered serious facial injuries but his life is not thought to be in danger and he was today recovering in hospital.

Two of his colleagues were also taken to hospital, one with shock and one with injuries sustained during the struggle.

The raiders got away with the case of cash, which had been destined for a nearby dispenser, in a gold A-registration Ford Granada.

It was later found abandoned in Fairlight Road.

Detective Constable Gary Batchelor, of Hastings police, said: "It was a really nasty attack."

The two men were white and wore dark waist-length fleece tops and light blue jeans.

Both were of average height and build and wore horizonally-striped pale blue and yellow woollen hats and scarves.

Anyone with information should call Hastings CID on 0845 6070999.