Police seized hundreds of cannabis plants from the latest in a string of major DIY drugs factories.

Up to 600 plants worth thousands of pounds were growing in what police described as a "professional" operation in a residential area.

The property in Upper Bevendean Avenue, Bevendean, had been specially ventilated and ducted and lights and fans installed.

The plants were growing in rows in seven or eight rooms and there were younger crops in a cupboard under the stairs.

The stash was discovered when a neighbour went to police complaining of a stench they thought could be coming from a dead body.

Officers broke into the house yesterday afternoon and were followed by a special scientific investigations team.

Neighbours in the quiet area said they had been concerned about the house, which used to be a hairdressers, since new owners moved in a few months ago.

The new occupiers had painted the windows so no one could see in and kept the curtains closed all the time.

Sara Bennington-Flair, 36, a cancer data officer and mother-of-two, said: "I'm not very surprised but I am shocked at what that house has been turned into.

"There are children playing out here all the time and a school just round the corner. My husband thought it was a bit suspicious."

Another neighbour, who asked not to be named, said: "I thought it was a brothel or something illegal. They only emerged at certain hours of the day."

There have been a number of similar discoveries over the past year in Bognor, Worthing, Littlehampton, Hove and St Leonards.

Last month former soldier Carlos Perez pleaded guilty to growing hundreds of cannabis plants above the Paint Emporium in Western Road, Hove.

Police believe there could be scores more undiscovered factories in Sussex, which is fast becoming a hotbed of drugs production.

Officers are trying to crack down on the largescale manufacturers before dealers swamp the streets with homegrown drugs.