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.