Broad daylight and a busy area did not put off two “Arab-looking” men from stealing a camera from a family of German tourists at knifepoint in Sliema on Saturday afternoon.

The owner continued to clutch the camera until they held the weapon to his throat

Despite the public’s intervention, however, they got away, leaving behind a traumatised 43-year-old man, his wife and 11-year-old daughter, who vowed, according to eyewitnesses, that they would never return to Malta.

All three suffered minor cuts – the father on his forehead, the mother in her hand and the daughter in her leg – caused by the attackers, who produced a knife when the father refused to part with his camera down by the sea next to Surfside at Fond Għadir, according to eyewitness Michael Carbone.

He was having a coffee at the street-level café above at about 1.30 p.m. when he heard lots of screaming. Mr Carbone immediately went to look over the railings and he and another Englishman instinctively gave the two men the chase, unaware, at that point, that they were armed.

“I ran on the road above and the Englishman ran by the sea in the hope that we would catch them once they had no choice but to get back up. Meanwhile, people were calling out to stop them,” Mr Carbone recounted.

At one point, the perpetrators stopped and the Englishman asked for the camera but they pointed the knife at him too and said they needed money to eat. He offered them €50 in exchange for it but they did not take it and took off again, said Mr Carbone, who was close to catching up by then.

They continued to follow the thieves up to the Independence Gardens – at least, to have an idea where they were heading – until they ran out of breath.

“We had to give up as the thieves went back onto the main road and seem to have split up and disappeared into the back streets,” he said.

The public’s joint effort – they did not simply look on – including a woman on a bicycle, who took photos, did not serve to stop the men from getting away and a search by the Mobile Squad and district police did not bear any results either.

Mr Carbone said one of the perpetrators was wearing a black hood and the other a white jumper; they were in their mid- to late 20s and one had missing teeth.

He spoke to the German tourists when he met them later at the police station and said they were “pretty shaken up and traumatised” by the experience.

“They told me they were jumped from behind by the two men, who tried to steal the camera from around the father’s neck,” he related. “He refused to let go, so they brought out the knife and cut the strap. The owner continued to clutch it until they held the weapon to his throat.”

The police said the camera was worth more than €1,500 and that an inquiry was underway.