Grieving relatives reacted with fury after finding loved ones' gravestones flattened for "safety reasons."

Church leaders at St Andrew's in Burgess Hill decided to pull down the tombstones before claiming they were wobbly and could injure passers-by.

They were worried about costly insurance claims.

But relatives only found out about the move through the pages of a weekly newspaper.

There are about 1,000 plots in the churchyard and 89 headstones were found to be wobbly. Thirty-nine were pulled down but the remaining 50 were too heavy to move.

Pensioner Bob Pennells said some of the headstones flattened were near the grave of his daughter. His wife's ashes were scattered on the same plot and he visits St Andrews twice a week.

Mr Pennells, 73, of Cants Lane, Burgess Hill, said: "It would be disgraceful if vandals knocked down or damage grave stones. You can't get much lower than that.

"In respect of the church wardens pushing down the headstones, I certainly wouldn't want to see it happen to my daughter's grave.

"I'd be totally against that.

"If there are no living relatives I suppose it doesn't matter as much. But it's still depressing to walk into a graveyard and see it."

Charlie Rossetter, 73, also of Cants Lane, said his in-laws were buried at St Andrews.

He said his wife Margaret had been shocked to see the state of the graveyard when she visited last week.

He said: "A lot of our neighbours go to the graveyard, especially older people.

"And it could be very upsetting for them to see the headstones forced down."

Church Warden Elaine Simmons said she was unsure what would happen to the gravestones but said they would have to be made safe.

She said instructions from the church's insurance company and guidelines written in the Diocesean handbook prompted the action.

She said: "I know if I turned up to a graveyard and found one of my relatives' headstones had been pulled down I would be upset.

"That's why we tried to let people know what we doing through the newspaper. Where we have been able to flatten headstones we have tried to do it in a respectful manner.

"If somebody was kneeling at a grave and used the headstone to help themselves up, would the stone topple over? That was the criteria we were working on."

She added: "One of the problems we have is that we only have records for the deceased, not their relatives, so we can't contact them that way."

Parish Administrator Celia Davis said: "We have had to do a survey of the churchyard and lay down all those gravestones which had loose mountings and could be potentially dangerous.

"It is just one of those tasks which we are expected to do annually under health and safety guidelines."