A night bus service has been axed after a young girl was showered with glass from a smashed window.

The bus was travelling along Bodiam Drive, Hastings, at around 7.20pm on Tuesday.

The 11-year-old was sitting with her mother when the window was hit, apparently by a stone from a catapult, and splinters of glass fell on her.

Although the girl was not hurt, she was left upset and shaken by the experience.

When police arrived, bus driver Jeff Casey told them he believed a powerful catapult was used to fire a stone.

Police are looking for two boys, aged between ten and 12, both with fair hair.

As a result of the incident Stagecoach, which operates the number 32 service from Ore to Hollington, has decided to withdraw all evening buses which run to and from the area.

Stagecoach operations manager Sean Catt said there had been three or four similar incidents during the summer.

Last year, evening services in the Linley Road area of Hastings were stopped after problems with stones being thrown at buses and vandalism.

Mr Catt said: "It was lucky the girl was not hurt. The stone might have smashed through the glass and hit her on the head.

"The safety of our passengers and staff are of the upmost importance so until the school holidays are over we will not be running the service in the evening.

"We wouldn't pull buses for just one incident but this isn't the first time there have been problems.

"Our regular customers are being let down through no fault of their own."

Mr Catt is angry the police have not done more to try and monitor the problem, and claims officers took more than an hour to arrive at the scene.

He said: "This could have been more serious and I think they should have got there sooner. With a bit more support we might have been able to keep the service running."