Last Thursday, I witnessed one of the most disgusting and ignorant scenes of my life.

When my colleagues and I at American Express in Brighton noticed a couple of police in reception after lunch, we figured something was up.

I went out of the building with a few colleagues to see what was going on.

Two hundred yards down Edward Street, we could see the traffic had stopped and police were directing oncoming traffic away from the city centre, presumably because of a protest a little further along.

I walked down the road to have a peek at the commotion in progress. On reaching the bottom of the road, I saw the demonstrators walking up Edward Street towards Amex House.

It was obvious what their intention was.

Sure enough, a crowd of about 100 people gathered on the steps and seemed to be trying to force their way into the building.

Spectators, myself included, stood looking at the protesters standing on the steps and singing anti-war songs.

After some time, we decided to head into the building and get back to work.

Then they spotted the three flagpoles that stand proud next to the building, sporting the UK, EU and US flags.

It was only a matter of time before the crowd surged around the flags and brought them to the ground.

All three were removed and, to a background of cheering, the US flag was torn to pieces.

My heart sank and I wanted nothing more than to tear into the crowd and teach them a lesson in what the war was really about.

Everyone has a right to protest but one detail irked me more than anything.

Eighty per cent of the crowd were schoolchildren no older than 15 or 16, the majority of them still wearing their burgundy uniform.

They held aloft their banners and sang their anti-war songs.

They tore down the UK and US flags and questioned "how many kids has the US killed today?" - something a couple of them had obviously picked up in Vietnam films on TV.

Sickening. They will have no idea about why they were protesting or what the situation is in Iraq.

To show that amount of disrespect to our people fighting out there is criminal.

I hope Amex sues the school responsible for failing to control its pupils.

-David McNiven, Church Close, Burgess Hill