It only takes a couple of seconds for thieves to strike, as this CCTV footage sent to Times of Malta shows. 

In the video, a mother pushing a pram casually walks up to the counter of a cosmetics shop in Sliema. She reaches into her handbag for her purse, and then turns her back on it as she speaks to the shop attendant. 

Two young women who seem to be casually browsing the store's cosmetics position themselves just behind the woman. 

Working in tandem, the thieves quickly strike. As one jostles into position and holds up her carrier bag to block the view from the rear of the shop, the other reaches into the victim's dangling handbag, pulls out the victim's mobile phone and slips it into her own bag.

Seconds later, the two are out of the shop. 

The theft happened last Tuesday, said Candice Mangani.  

"I realised my phone was missing five minutes after I left the shop," she said. "My bag was closed but she managed to take my phone anyway." 

Mrs Mangani said that although the phone - a €900 iPhone 6 Plus - was valuable, it was the videos of her baby daughter that she would miss the most. 

"I had a video of her steps that I didn't download off the phone," she said. 

She said that another woman had approached her, claiming that the same two women had stolen her wallet in Sliema the previous week. 

"Police said they were very busy with pickpockets, which is why I decided to contact the media," Ms Mangani said. "These people seem very professional, and I want to do my utmost to stop them."

Have you seen these women? Contact police on 119 or 21224001.