A suspected drug boss was dragged away in front of children after hundreds of cannabis plants were found in a raid next to a school.

The 32-year-old Vietnamese man was arrested yards from a line of schoolchildren as he fled from a police raid on a drugs factory.

About 700 plants were seized from the house in Elm Drive, Hove, overlooking Goldstone Primary School in Laburnum Avenue, during the operation this morning.

Police found enough plants to produce cannabis worth more than £100,000 when they raided the house at about 8.30am.

Inside they found six rooms full of plants being hothoused under intense lighting and a loft full of binbags stuffed with harvested leaves.

Feed solution was being pumped from the bath through a hosepipe to the rows of plants.

Plastic sheeting was fixed over the house's windows to block out natural light and keep the factory hidden from view.

The only living space was the kitchen, where a sofa bed was pushed against the front wall of the house. An offering of fruit had been left at a small shrine next to the front door. Neighbours said the house's former owner moved out about a year ago.

Since then they had learned little about the new occupants, apart from occasionally seeing an Asian man in the street, they said.

Police confirmed the suspect, who has a London address, was in custody last night being questioned by detectives on suspicion of producing cannabis.

Inspector Andy Richardson, of Sussex Police, said: "This sends out a message to the people who do this that we are on their case and we will stop them producing drugs in the city."

Hangleton and Knoll councillor Dawn Barnett said cannabis was dangerous because it could lead users to harder drugs.

She said: "Drug dealers are the lowest of the low. They need to give a few of them real hard sentences."

Michael Foote, 40, of Elm Drive, was taking his eight-yearold boy to school when he saw the suspect being arrested in the street.

He said there were about 60 children and a total of 100 people in the street at the time.

Mr Foote said: "I've lived here for six years and we've never had drugs raids. It is outrageous.

"You don't want organised crime in your street."

Chadley Parsons, 15, of Moyne Close, said: "I saw the police shouting, Get down. Stop. Stay where you are.'

"I heard the man screaming when they tried to pick him up."

Tara Moore, 35, of May Tree Walk, has a four-year-old at Goldstone Primary School. She said: "It is a concern. It is not nice that it is round the corner from the school."

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