Police and language schools have been successful in reducing the number of vicious and unprovoked attacks on foreign students over the past decade.

But a French student called Edouard has just told us of an appalling assault by five men who knocked him off his bike in a quiet part of Hove at around midnight.

The gang used knives as well as their fists to inflict severe injuries on this defenceless young man.

There can be no excuse for this kind of attack and anyone who saw it should waste no time in calling Hove police.

But the sad truth is that even parts of suburban Hove are not safe for foreign students to be alone in late at night and this message must be emphasised to all of them.