Two nuns were shocked to find a man inside a Mid Sussex house belonging to their convent.

The sisters were checking the building in Moat Road, East Grinstead, which is to be let.

One, Sister Cynthia, from St Margaret's Convent, was checking a room in the empty house at 5.30pm on Tuesday.

But when her colleague Sister Lucy checked another room she was confronted by a man in his 50s who had got in by breaking a window and appeared to be settling down for the night on a sofa.

He tried to escape via a window, changed his mind and shoved past the nuns and through the front door.

Sister Cynthia said today: "When we found him in there, it made our hearts go boom, boom, boom.

"Apart from a few bits, the house is empty but we have to check it every day for insurance purposes.

"I was going to check it myself but Sister Lucy said she would come as well.

"The man obviously heard us chatting. It looked as though he was about to settle in for the night as there is a comfortable sofa in the room."

Police said the man was 5ft 11in with short brown spiky hair.