A teenage girl was raped in bushes in a Brighton park after a night out.

The attack happened after the 15-year-old was dragged into bushes in Carden Park in Carden Avenue, Hollingbury.

It is believed she was stripped and subjected to an attack lasting at least 15 minutes at about 4am on Saturday.

After the attacker had fled the girl ran down Carden Avenue, crying for help.

People say they were woken by repeated screams of : "Leave me alone, leave me alone" as she ran past their homes.

But they thought the noise was coming from drunken youths returning from a night out at clubs in Brighton.

The first they knew of the attack was when police sealed off an area around bushes in the park close to a bus shelter.

An area on a small green on the opposite side of the road used by residents to park their cars was also sealed off.

As it became light, they began a careful search of the cordoned- off area.

A security guard at a nearby factory said: "They were on their hands and knees doing and inch-by-inch search of the area at about 5am.

"I spoke to one of the officers and he told me that a woman had been raped in the park a little earlier.

"He said that after the attack she had run naked down Carden Avenue crying for help."

People living nearby said they were woken by her cries and looked out of their bedroom windows.

Paul Mohns, 37, and his wife Sharon, 34, had been woken earlier by their two-year-old son Charlie. Mr Mohns, a carpet fitter, said: "We heard a woman screaming 'leave me alone' repeatedly for about 15 minutes.

"At first we thought it was the normal sort of thing you get around here after people have been out for the night.

"After it went on for a few minutes, I looked at the clock and saw that it was 3.50am.

"By the time I got to the front window I just caught a glimpse of a woman running down the road, screaming."

Pensioner Bert Abell, 81, said he was also woken by the girl screaming as she ran along Carden Avenue near the County Oak Avenue shops.

He said:"I was woken by a crowd of boys coming down the road sometime between 3am and 4am.

"A short time later I heard a woman's voice coming down the road screaming. She was screaming so loudly I opened my window to see what was going on, but I could not see anyone."

A Sussex Police spokesman said a man was being questioned in relation to the incident.