Gnome identity parade

Officers want to know if macarbe gnomes found taped to lamp-posts in Seaford were stolen from a business in the Lewes area.

People were stunned on Friday - the 13th - when they saw more than 20 gnomes adorning Broad Street.

The Express received a number of bemused telephone calls, emails and readers' photographs - but gnome-one could offer an explanation for the strange scene.

Some of the gnomes were impaled by garden implements.

Sgt David Kemp said: 'The little fellows appear to have been stolen from a premises in Lewes. Once we have debriefed them and examined the CCTV footage I anticipate that we will be visiting someone's gnome with a view to an arrest.'

A spokesman for East Sussex County Council said: 'We can understand how people might find this funny but there are also some serious issues here.

'Apart from being stolen, these gnomes were fixed at head height and could have fallen, injuring a passer-by.

'We hope that the police will now be able to reunite them with their owner so that they can be returned to where they belong.

'You could say that for these particular garden ornaments there's gnome place like home.'