We've heard about seagulls attacking people to get sandwiches or chips off people, but now footage has emerged of a seagull attacking a car.

One motorist might need some new paintwork for their car after the video, filmed by Graeme Stokes, showed the gull walking up to the parked Lexus in Kemp Town where it had spotted its own reflection.

After calling out to other birds which can be heard nearby, it then launched a frenzied attack against the passenger side door.

In the footage, Mr Stokes recorded the bird angrily pecking away at what it believed was another seagull.

On Facebook he posted: “If this was your Lexus in Kemptown around the corner from Lidl, I did scare the seagull off.

“But it may have done some damage.”

His post has since been viewed hundreds of times online and led to a flurry of comments, with many describing their own experiences of seagull attacks.

One person wrote: “Call the police, it should arrested that seagull.”

Another person posted: “Fighting his own reflection for dominance whilst at the same time damaging property.”

There was even speculation that the seagull may have been showing where its loyalties lie if the car was owned by a Crystal Palace supporter, as the rivalry between the Eagles and Brighton and Hove Albion has intensified this season.

Others on the Brighton People Facebook page described the more common experience of seeing the gulls attacking their own reflections in windows.

But there was also a more sinister post which appeared to show a seagull waiting outside a car door with the driver inside.

The gulls are regarded as scavengers, but they are protected under the Wildlife and Countryside Act of 1981.

Under the law, it is illegal for anyone to intentionally or recklessly kill or injure the birds, or to damage or destroy their nests.

Wildlife expert and animal rescue centre owner Roger Musselle said some species have gull have declined by half over recent decades. He looks after more than 500 gulls each year, and says they are very intelligent.

Mr Musselle said: “We should be proud of our population of gulls that we have, it’s important that they don’t die out as a species.”

He said that the gulls attacking reflections in windows is not unique to them as a species, as he has seen birds like chaffinches doing the same.

He added:”It’s not peculiar, they are just trying to drive off the competition.”