FED-UP residents today demanded action to stop their Brighton street being used as a dumping ground for burned-out stolen cars.

Early today, five cars, a motorcycle and two properties were damaged when yobs set light to a Ford Orion after crashing it into other vehicles parked in Shanklin Road. People living in the road are used to being woken by joyriders torching stolen vehicles outside their homes but the scale of last night's fire particularly frightened them. Four of the cars and the bike were destroyed. The properties, one of which is derelict and boarded up, suffered minor damage. April Lake, 33, was woken at about 1.20am by the sound of roaring flames outside her bedroom window. April said: "My husband, Mark, and I could feel the heat through the windows. We live right next to the lock-up where the cars were parked. "It's happened before but this was the most frightening. "For some reason, cars are driven up here by joyriders, dumped and burned. Mother Sue Whatley said she is trying to move out of the area because of the joyriders. Sue said: "Something has got to be done. My own car was burned out last month right outside my house. My 11-year-old daughter Zoe was petrified. "Last night, when the petrol tanks exploded, it was terrifying."

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