Tonnes of rubbish from the beached vessel MSC Napoli have been cleared from a beauty spot in Sussex.

Shampoo bottles, Nike trainers, toothbrushes and spray cans were among items found in a clean-up operation at Cuckmere Haven.

Countryside rangers have been collecting photographic evidence of the haul so they can claim compensation.

A team of 50 people scoured the Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty today and picked up three tonnes of waste.

They covered a mile and a half of coastline and concentrated on the river mouth, salt marshes, beach and area behind it.

Robin Thorpe, the visitor services manager for the South Downs Joint Committee, said: "The worst parts affected were the river mouth and lower salt marshes.

"We were able to identify a certain amount of waste as definitely originating from the Napoli and we could tell because of the type of cargo and the brands which we know the ship was carrying.

"There were shampoo bottles, baby food lids, spray cans, tooth brushes, Nike trainers and the plastic shells from inside Kinder eggs.

"Unfortunately we didn't get any motorbikes or barrels of wine like they got in Devon.

"A good percentage of the rubbish we cleared came from the Napoli but there was other waste too.

"There were a lot of planks and we're not sure where they came from and we also found mess from the fishermen, which would have been local. This was around the amount we'd normally expect to find."

Other helpers went out last Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday to blitz the main beach.

They picked up rubbish which filled 200 bin liners and weighed a tonne.

Wealden District Council collected it and was going back for what was recovered yesterday.

Mr Thorpe added: "Some of the rubbish has been lying around for months.

"We clean the main beach regularly but parts of the salt marsh and river banks are cleaned less frequently and were probably last done about two or three months ago.

"However, a lot of the rubbish has been washed up recently and more continues to come in with each tide.

"We normally carry out a clean-up around this time of year because most of the big winter and spring tides will hopefully have passed and it is easier to make sure the beach is kept pristine."

The beach clean is normally done in two days but took four this year because of the extra items from the Napoli.

The container ran aground off Devon in January and spilled several cargo crates. It sparked a nationwide rush of scavengers.

Bottles of face cream and shampoo, tins of baby milk and biscuits and butane gas canisters were washed up onto beaches at Climping and Littlehampton.