Sussex Police shot a 62-year-old man three times and fired four plastic bullets at the end of an armed siege in Seaford, the Independent Police Complaints Commission has revealed.

Armed officers surrounded the home of Paul Allwright in North Way on Saturday night after his wife told them he had a gun.

He emerged with a shotgun shortly before 1am and was shot twice in the torso and once in the leg by police.

The IPCC, which is investigating the shooting, confirmed a shotgun found at the scene had been fired once.

Mr Allwright remains in a critical but stable condition at the Royal Sussex County Hospital.

Commissioner Mike Franklin said yesterday: "The police officers involved have provided the IPCC with their initial accounts of the incident and our investigators have spent the last few days obtaining statements from witnesses.

"Our investigation, which is in the very early stages, will scrutinise the actions and decision making of Sussex Police, including the initial 999 call, the deployment of armed officers and the negotiation process over a number of hours leading up to and including the shooting.

"An IPCC family liaison manager is in contact with the man’s family.”

Sussex Police's major crime detectives are treating the incident as an attempted murder of police officers.