Children as young as 12 have been stopped late at night by police in a crack down on under-age drinking, rowdy behaviour and attacks on foreign students.

Officers spoke to a total of 44 children aged under 18 during the operation near Eastbourne pier.

Police said 17 of the 44 children stopped were young girls.

Eight of the 44, who came from Eastbourne, Seaford, Hastings, Bexhill, Hailsham and Polegate, were caught drinking alcohol.

Officers poured their drinks away as they were breaching Eastbourne town centre's street drinking ban.

A senior police chief yesterday said the late-night operation begged the question: "Where are the parents?"

Friday's crackdown, codenamed Operation Confront and involving East Sussex Trading Standards, was heralded a success by Chief Inspector Peter Mills, Eastbourne's district commander.

He plans to write to the parents of all 44 children outlining his concerns.

The operation followed recent reports of rowdy behaviour by youths near the pier and a series of attacks on foreign students.

In the most recent assault, a German girl of 13 had lager poured over her head and was punched in the face by three English girls in Langney, Eastbourne.

The operation also focused on selling alcohol to under-age children.

A child aged 15 was used by trading standards to test whether ten off licences in central Eastbourne would sell him alcohol but all asked for proof of age.

Mr Mills said he was pleased no-one sold alcohol under-age but promised more operations throughout the summer to maintain standards.

He said: "Some parents were telephoned to collect their children and were surprised they were there.

"It begs the question of parental responsibility. Do they know or even care where their children are?

"Are they happy for them to be antisocial and expect the police to pick up the pieces? It appears some parents are simply not bothered about what their children get up to after leaving home and frankly they need to be.

"I will be writing to parents of all 44 stopped outlining my thoughts. I am extremely pleased no off licences sold alcohol to under-age children."

Last December, a similar operation near Eastbourne pier resulted in 48 youths being stopped by police who confiscated 50 cans of beer and alcopops.

Operation Confront 2 is a high-visibility police crackdown aimed at rooting out burglars, drug dealers and car criminals.

More than 1,000 hours of patrols have been taking place each month as part of Confront 2, relaunched following the earlier success of Operation Confront.

Officers have been on foot, bicycle and under-taking road checks.