Police welcomed in the New Year with a crash, bang, wallop.

A set of cymbals and a drum were found lying in a street on New Year's Day.

Felicity Chapman, lost property clerk at Brighton police station, said: "Goodness knows how they got there.

"They may have fallen out of a van - but then you would have thought the owner would have heard the racket and stopped.

"They might also belong to a youngster and were thrown out by a parent, fed up with the noise."

The instruments were discovered by passers-by in Bennett Road, Brighton.

They were among the more unusual items found and handed in over the Christmas and New Year holiday.

Dozens of mobile phones, many brand new and received as Christmas presents, were reported lost. Only six were found and handed in at the John Street police station.

Most were discovered on the back seats of taxis.

Mrs Chapman urged owners to record "IMEI" numbers found inside phones. They resemble bar-code numbers.

Found phones are kept at police stations for a month and clerks leave them on in case the owners call. They also check the phones for clues to owners' identities.

After a month they are sent to Karen Wallace-Hadrill, clerk at Chichester police station.

She collects them from police stations all round Sussex and passes them on to Worthing Hospital. They are then sold on to third-world countries and the proceeds are ploughed into the hospital's children's ward.

Mrs Wallace-Hadrill said more than 1,000 phones had been given to the hospital in the past year.

She said: "We do try our best to find the owners. It is sad for the losers but it is nice that the phones we can't reunite with owners are used for a good cause."

Anyone with information about the found drum kit should contact Mrs Chapman on 0845 6070 999.