A gang of youths is terrorising staff and shoppers at late-night shops.

Angry shopkeepers said nothing was being done to stop the intimidation and abuse by the children, some as young as ten.

Julie Atkins said there had been no response when staff at her Brighton newsagent and video shop called police.

She said: "The other night we had trouble and we called the police at 8pm and they did not turn up.

"I contacted the police again and all they said was they had given me an incident number and they would look into it.

"It leaves you feeling very disillusioned. I would like a police response before somebody gets hurt."

Brighton and Hove police said officers would look into the problem after being contacted by The Argus.

A spokeswoman said: "Our original assessment was of a group of children messing about. Having looked at the incident again it is very unclear exactly what took place.

"We have sent a sergeant straight up there to talk to her."

Ms Atkins, who owns Queen's Park Video in Queen's Park Road, said a gang of a dozen ten to 14-year-olds gathered outside her shop nearly every evening.

She said: "They don't just stop at the shop - they terrorise the neighbourhood. It is getting beyond ridiculous. It is not just our shop - they are intimidating everybody who goes by."

She has now told staff to close the shop rather than be threatened by the youths.

Andrew Klerck, deputy manager at the Thresher off-licence next door, said his staff had also been victims of the gang.

He said: "They give us so much hassle and there is hardly anything we can do about it.

"I can't go out there by myself and tell them to go away because I am just going to end up getting beaten up.

"Really, we don't know what to do about it."

The police spokeswoman said it was often difficult to deal with gangs of youths.

She said: "If children commit offences they will be arrested. They could then be cautioned, they could be charged and they could get criminal records.

"Now we have new legislation which allows us to apply to the courts for anti-social behaviour orders."

Ward councillor Joyce Edmond Smith said she also planned to investigate the problem and possibly speak to the youths' parents.

She said: "I would rather go down the route of trying to find out who the kids are, who the families are and trying to talk to the families.

"I have always wanted to see more for that age group to do in the area.

"We really have to address ourselves to that age group. There really is not much for them to do on these long summer evenings."