A car has hit a lamp post which ended up leaning over a railway line, delaying services.

The accident happened where the A23 meets the A27 at Patcham, north of Brighton, just before 5pm today.

The incident caused delays to a number of train services travelling southbound into Brighton.

It is understood the track was out of action for about 20 minutes.

A police spokesman said: "A vehicle hit some sort of lamp post and due to its location railways were made aware.

"Due to it being a lamp post we had to get specialist teams there to fix it because of the electricity.

"It's in-hand at the moment. No injuries or arrests at this stage."

The road is not closed and officers are making the area safe.

A Network Rail spokesman said the lamp post was encroaching on to the railway.

He said trains were still able to function but that they had to pass at walking pace for safety.

He said: "In total 30 services were delayed by the incident. It was a question of managing the incident until the council resolved it."