French students were attacked by English yobs on the seafront.

A sharp-eyed CCTV operator spotted the assaults and officers were sent racing to the scene.

Within an hour, eight of the ten offenders had been captured and by yesterday morning another youth had been apprehended.

Police last night were hot on the trail of the tenth offender.

The gang had scattered all over the city but a large-scale hunt by police rounded most of them up.

One offender was found hiding in St James's Street and another was in Black Lion Street.

Police discovered later that one offender was the subject of an Antisocial Behaviour Order.

All nine were taken to a police custody centre and later released pending further inquiries.

Sergeant Lawrence Cartwright said: "It was brilliant work by the CCTV operator and by officers on the ground.

"I hope young hooligans get the message that we will not tolerate and will react robustly to any antisocial behaviour or street crime. In this case, they thought visiting students were easy pickings. But they thought wrong."

Sgt Cartwright said police was disgusted by the attack on visitors and he appealed to witnesses and anyone with information to come forward.

The French students, visiting Brighton for a week, were on Brighton beach until midnight on Monday when they started walking to a taxi rank in West Street.

They were in Kings Road when the local youths began hitting them.

A male and female among the gang caused most of the violence.

Several victims fled but two were unable to escape. One was repeatedly hit and his glasses were broken. The second had his wallet, cash and identity papers stolen.

Neither suffered serious injury and all were expected to be returning to their homes in France last night.

Anyone with information should call Brighton CID on 0845 6070999.