Traders have compared Worthing to Beirut after a string of shop windows in a high street were kicked in and shattered by vandals.

They said they were sick of counting the cost of late-night thugs kicking in their shop fronts in the town centre and confessed they were at breaking point.

In the latest incident seven windows were smashed in South Farm Road and Teville Road, Worthing, leaving traders facing replacement costs of thousands of pounds.

David McPeak, 49, owner of the Spa shop in South Farm Road, Worthing, which had its window smashed, said all law and order had broken down after he watched the thugs kick in windows in the early hours of Saturday morning.

He said: "I am from Northern Ireland and it is worse here, I can tell you. It is not a seaside retirement town. I call this place Beirut.

"I live above the shop and was woken up at about 2am on Saturday by shouting. I heard an almighty thud of windows being kicked in and then the glass shattering. I looked out of the window and saw two young men kick the shop front of an electrical store next door to me 22 times before it caved in.

"It had only just had a new window put in on Thursday." He said some of the shops had had windows smashed for the third or fourth time in the last month.

Kirsty Harkness, 25, who with her partner has run The Film Store in Teville Road since April, said they were thinking of closing after their window was kicked in.

Four weeks after they opened thieves kicked in a window and stole more than £5,000-worth of DVD equipment.

Stephen Fowler, owner of a furniture shop in South Farm Road, which had its shop front smashed, said: "Come 11 o'clock I just take the phone off the hook. I couldn't bear to hear any more bad news."

Another Teville Road trader said: "Soon we will be blacklisted by insurance companies."

Vandals smashed two windows at Dixons newsagents in Richmond Road and daubed graffiti on the Pavilion Theatre, Worthing.

A police spokesman said: "A number of incidents of criminal damage in and around the South Farm Road area were reported during the weekend.

"An 18-year-old man from Worthing was arrested on suspicion of criminal damage and assault on a police officer. He was cautioned for the assault and no further action was taken regarding the criminal damage."