A woman was forced to clear out her home today after health inspectors branded it a public health hazard.

Brighton and Hove City Council's environmental health team was called in by police who had raided the terraced house in Washington Street, Hanover, Brighton, on Friday.

Officers found the back garden strewn with dumped furniture, household appliances, mattresses, litter and faeces.

Inside, police said the state of the three floors "beggared belief".

The inspectors issued an enforcement notice, ordering the woman owner to clean up.

This morning, as the five-day deadline elapsed, a blue pick-up truck pulled up outside the house and the woman, with her teenage daughter and a group of friends, began piling dozens of bin bags on to the back.

Neighbours watched as the enforced clean-up continued under the watchful gaze of a police officer and council inspector.

Sergeant Steve Curry said: "When we arrived on Friday the house was in an appalling state. It just beggared belief.

"There was an enormous amount of rubbish and in the cellar there was blood and excrement up the walls."

Eight people in the building were questioned but no one was arrested in the raid.

A spokeswoman for the council's community environmental health team said today: "The garden of the house was in need of being cleaned up because it was affecting the neighbours.

"A notice was served under the Public Health Act requiring them to clean up or we would call in our contractors."