A man is in hospital after he was stabbed in the chest amid crowds of drinkers and holidaymakers on Brighton seafront.

The 32-year-old victim, from Brighton, suffered a single wound.

His injuries were not thought to be life-threatening and he was expected to spend two or three days in hospital.

It happened outside the Arc Bar in King's Road Arches yesterday where people were enjoying a summer afternoon.

Police say the attacker was black, 5ft 8in with shoulder-length dreadlocks with blonde streaks. He was wearing a red top.

Detectives are waiting to interview the injured man and are appealing for witnesses to the incident.

A police spokeswoman said: "Until we get a statement from the man who was assaulted we cannot be clear about what happened but it appears this was just between two people.

"We are trying to find out what prompted it."

The front of the nearby Fortune of War pub was sealed off immediately after the incident at 4.20pm but was reopened by 6pm amid confusion about the exact location of the assault.

The assistant manager of the Arc Bar, Luigi, said the area was relatively quiet at the time and no one appeared to have seen anything.

He said: "It must have happened very quickly because the first we knew about it was when the police came and told us.

"When the police came we went to look and there seems to have been no bleeding at all. There was no sign anything happened.

"There were not that many people around. It had been a nice, quiet, normal day."