Panic buying of petrol returned to Sussex today as drivers anticipated renewed protests over fuel tax.

Queues formed outside filling stations in Brighton, causing traffic congestion.

Some drivers began filling up late last night and by this morning a small number of garages had already run out of unleaded.

Drivers queued for 30 minutes at the Shell station on the A259 at Peacehaven, and at Asda in Hollingbury.

One garage in Hollingdean, Brighton, and an Esso garage at Hove Station had no unleaded this morning.

Police urged motorists not to panic. Spokesman Chris Oswick said: "There is no evidence of any need to panic buy, and there is surely no need to queue.

"With the weather and road conditions as they are, queuing in roads outside stations is extremely dangerous and we strongly urge people not to do it."

Most filling stations were busier than normal this morning.

The Salvadge Service Station in South Coast Road, Peacehaven, ran out of unleaded petrol at about 3am today.

Manager Carl Boyles said: "We had long queues yesterday from about 4pm. For small stations like us, where we have a set order of fuel every week, it just wipes us out. I think it was the comments by Jack Straw that started it.

"Instead of just getting £10 or £11, people were filling up and also filling up petrol cans. It happened so quickly."

Mr Boyles said he was expecting a delivery of unleaded at noon.

The Q8 in Mill Road, Patcham, said it had been very busy for the past week and had banned people from filling up both their cars and canisters.

Manager Theresa Scott said: "Sales are definitely up. We are not letting people filling up petrol cans unless they have broken down. Otherwise it just gets silly. We learn that from the last time."

One of the longest queues this morning was at Tesco in Burgess Hill, where about 30 were waiting to refuel at 9.30am.

Oil giant Shell came under fire today as it posted record earnings on the back of soaring oil prices.

The figures were released as Home Secretary Jack Straw signalled the Government's determination to combat threatened fuel protests.

The Anglo-Dutch company announced an 80 per cent jump in earnings for the last three months.

Protesters called the profits "scandalous", but many continued to lay the blame with the Government for high fuel taxes.