Detective Chief Inspector Graham Pratt revealed that a post mortem had shown Mohammed Al-Majed, 16, died as a result of injuries caused from falling and hitting his head on the pavement during the incident.

It is believed Mohammed, from Qatar, was chased and possibly punched to the ground after a fight broke out between local youths and students outside a kebab shop at the junction of Robertson Street.

Said DCI Pratt: "The circumstances are that Mohammed Al-Majed, who was over in Hastings studying English, has been involved in initially a verbal altercation in the local kebab house.

"It seems that has escalated fairly quickly into a physical assault involving Mohammed and his friends and local lads.

"Mohammed, I believe, was trying to make his way away from the incident and during the course of doing so has fallen striking his head on the pavement and sustaining serious injuries.

"Sadly Mohammed died late on Sunday evening from those head injuries.

"We are trying to establish how Mohammed came to fall.

"The questions we need to answer are - was he assaulted, was he punched or pushed, did he fall?

"We are trying to find out the exact circumstances of what happened."

DCI Pratt went on: "We are investigating it as a racially motivated incident. Clearly much of our investigation will seek to establish how much race played a part in what happened.

"I am appealing to speak to anybody who was in the kebab shop on Friday evening who saw the incident, either the beginning or the immediate aftermath, who can give us some new evidence as to what occurred."

The exact spot where Mohamnmed fell was outside The Pig In Paradise pub on the seafront.

Said DCI Pratt: "We particularly would like to speak to a man aged in his late teens or early 20s, white, with short dark hair, wearing a short sleeved green t-shirt, and a woman in her late 30s or early 40s, of heavy build, with blond hair."

Mohammed's father has already returned to Qatar along with his son's body.

"The family are clearly completely in pieces over what has occurred," said DCI Pratt.

Four youths have been arrested and bailed while enquiries continue.