Carrying €270,000 in cash, Egyptian businessman Essam Bolous struggled to hold on to his suitcase but when hooded men pointed a gun at his face he decided to let go.

Mr Bolous, 42, had just arrived in Malta on an Egyptair flight at about 4.45 p.m. on Thursday and was walking to his car in Hal Resqun Road, Gudja when he was assaulted and robbed.

"I saw they were going to shoot me and I gave them my suitcase," he said yesterday. "They took all I had."

Mr Bolous had just arrived next to his car and was getting out his keys when someone covered his eyes. He turned, warding off the man behind him when he spotted four hooded men.

"They started hitting me on my head, my face and hands. They punched and hit my face with a gun," Mr Bolous recalled.

Mr Bolous was hit so violently in the face the police suspect the gun the assailants held broke and discharged the bullets. It is the only explanation they have so far for the seven live bullets they found scattered on the scene of the crime. Another one was found in the van used as a getaway.

He ended up with five stitches, a fractured nose and bruised.

Mr Bolous tried to hold on to his suitcase, which contained cash he planned to be deposited for a loan, but stopped struggling when the attackers pointed the gun at his face.

Before leaving, they sprayed him in the eyes with a stinging substance, likely to be pepper spray, and got away in a white Peugeot van, he said. They abandoned the vehicle shortly after in Ghaxaq and set it on fire some 15 minutes later.

With blood streaming down his face, Mr Bolous staggered to a row of houses in the road nearby in the hope of calling for help. "There was an open garage door and I called out. People came out and called an ambulance and the police," he said.

He was taken to hospital and kept overnight but refused to stay another day. "I was going crazy in there by myself. I wanted to go home."

Mr Bolous, who has a Maltese identity card, is married to an Egyptian woman and has two sons and one daughter. His wife was abroad when he was attacked. "I called her and assured her that I was ok."

It is still a mystery how many men knew of his movements and the fact that he would be carrying so much cash.

He said he often travelled to and from Egypt and regularly carried such large amounts for business purposes.

Police investigations continue.