Police have seized guns and arrested four people on suspicion of kidnapping in a raid on a Brighton flat.
It is alleged that the kidnap victim was held and hit repeatedly at an address in Eastbourne.
Police last night kept observation on a flat at Brighton Marina and swooped as suspects left the address. Handguns were discovered.
The three men and a woman were taken to Brighton police station and later driven to Eastbourne police station, where they were being questioned today.
Police confirmed they were checking a possible link with a kidnapping in Brighton in July in which two men had boiling water poured over their laps. A woman who walked in on the scene was grabbed and tied to a chair.
She told police later: "It was like a scene from Lock, Stock And Two Smoking Barrels."
The victims, both in their 20s, were repeatedly pistol whipped and tortured in an ordeal that lasted more than three hours.
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