A restaurant owner trapped a suspected burglar for more than an hour - but had to let him go when police failed to turn up.

Din Mohammed, 41, who has run Karims Tandoori in Blatchington Road, Hove, for 15 years, said his son Dil, 22, discovered the man as he opened up.

He kept the stranger locked in while waiting for officers to arrive.

But because of an incident elsewhere in the city he was told no officers could attend.

Mr Mohammed, of Woodingdean, Brighton, said: "I got a phone call from my son at 4.30pm saying he had come to the restaurant and there was a person inside who shouldn't have been there.

"I told him to call the police and I arrived at 4.50pm and the police had not arrived. I called again and they said they had no officers to sort the matter out.

"Nearly 45 minutes later the police rang back asking if we still had him and I said yes. They said they still didn't have anyone available because somebody was threatening to jump off a building and they were all there.

"Years ago if you telephoned the police they would have been there within minutes, but not now."

Mr Mohammed said the intruder, who claimed to be looking for a job, was not aggressive and sat in the restaurant while waiting for the police.

On the advice of a police call handler, Mr Mohammed took the man's name, address and date of birth.

He said: "My son asked him what he was doing and he said he had come here looking for a job.

"The restaurant was still locked so the man was just walking round waiting for the police to arrive.

"But I had to let him go at 5.45pm so I could open the restaurant at 6pm. I said to him, 'It's your lucky day'."

Chief Inspector Peter Mills, of Sussex Police, said: "We did not find ourselves in ideal circumstances yesterday to respond to this suspected burglary.

"All our units were dealing with managing the crowd and negotiating successfully with a person who was attempting to commit suicide in the Bartholomew Square area.

"I am very happy to apologise to Mr Mohammed. Under normal circumstances he would have got an immediate response to his call."

He added: "This week has been particularly successful for the city crime-wise. Crime is down by 120 offences this week, or 20 per cent.

"We have our top six burglars in custody and police in the city have done nearly 230 stop-searches on suspected burglars, car criminals and drug suppliers."

When our reporter called at the address given by the intruder it was found to be a boarded-up former hotel called Squirrels, which has been occupied by squatters.