A man was being questioned by police today after a high-speed chase in which a squad car was rammed.

The fugitive wreaked havoc for 67 minutes as he sped through the countryside yesterday afternoon with a helicopter on his tail.

Drivers pulled out of the way as the 4x4 green and gold Mitsubishi Shogun led police as far as Worthing after officers had tried to arrest the driver in Brighton.

He crashed into several cars as he tried to flee the helicopter, causing damage estimated at thousands of pounds.

Witnesses said he was driving erratically at high speed and at one point rammed one of the police cars following him to escape from a car park.

After more than an hour, police finally caught up with him back in Hove.

The chase had started at 4.55pm and a man was arrested at 6.02pm.

Gary Palfreman, 37, from Littlehampton, was travelling home from Trotton, near Midhurst, with a colleague, when they were caught up in the chase.

Mr Palfreman said they were driving south along the A24 at Findon at about 5.30pm.

He said: "My colleague saw a 4x4 car approaching on the offside at high speed. It was being driven erratically.

"We thought it was going to ram us off the road. There was heavy traffic coming the other way so there was really nowhere for it to go but it got past.

"We saw a police helicopter above and, a short while later, two police cars went past.

"It was like something out of those American car chase shows."

He said they saw three or four police cars travelling at speed through the Thomas A' Becket junction in Worthing and saw an unmarked police car travelling southbound head-on into traffic at the same junction.

Katy Miller, 22, from Shoreham, saw the car shunt a police vehicle to escape from a car park at the Guildbourne shopping centre, Worthing, at about 5.40pm.

She said: "I heard this screeching noise and a 4x4 car pulled into the car park and stopped at the barrier. A police car came and stopped behind it and an officer got out and started walking towards the 4x4.

"Suddenly the 4x4 reversed quickly and pushed the police car all the way back into the road and then drove off at speed. It smashed the front of the police car and the engine was smoking.

"My heart was absolutely pounding."

A Sussex Police spokesman said: "After an incident in Brighton, which we are still investigating, there was a pursuit which went out as far as Ditchling, then into Hove and Worthing before returning to the Hove area where the male driver was arrested."