A gang armed with a baseball bat and a home-made weapon beat up a man in a "sustained and vicious" daytime street attack in Haywards Heath.

The 30-year-old victim suffered a series of blows to his head and body and his leg was broken.

At least three men, one with tattoos on his arms and a mohican haircut, set upon him as he walked through Haywards Heath.

They hit him with baseball bats and one of the gang whacked him with a lump of metal he swung from the end of a hosepipe.

They did not seem to care that they were seen by passers-by as they battered him.

The man, from Burgess Hill, was walking in Penn Crescent, Haywards Heath, when he was set upon at the corner of Washington Road, shortly after noon on Saturday.

He was taken to Princess Royal Hospital where he was said to be in a poorly but stable condition.

The man with the Mohican was 5ft 3in tall with brown hair. He was wearing black tracksuit trousers and a black top with some sort of writing or logo on the back.

The second man, who carried the homemade weapon, was aged 18 to 19 and was wearing white tracksuit trousers with stripes down the side and a white Reebok top with the logo printed on the front and back and black stripes down the side.

The third man, aged about 20, was well built and was wearing blue jeans and a brown baseball cap and was bare-chested during the attack. All the men were white.

Officers investigating the assault are particularly anxious to speak to a mother and daughter who were on a bicycle at the time who may have seen what happened.

Detective Inspector Andy Young, of Haywards Heath CID, said: "He received injuries all over his body from the blows.

"It was a very vicious and sustained attack which is particularly disturbing because it happened at midday in Haywards Heath. We are treating it as a very serious assault."