An Italian businessman was yesterday shot in the leg after he refused to hand over a haversack with over two kilos of gold, estimated to be worth €70,000, to two hooded men who followed him into a Ħamrun café.
The robbers snatched the haversack and took off to a getaway car in which a third man was waiting, sources said.
The police said the victim was 49 years old but did not name him, as is normal practice in police statements. The sources said he was not badly hurt because the bullet, fired from a pistol, passed right through his leg. He was expected to be released from hospital last night.
The haversack he was carrying was not his but belonged to another Italian man accompanying him at the café, the sources said.
It is believed the thieves were locals because eyewitnesses in the café heard them speak in Maltese, the sources added. The police said they did not yet have any suspects.
The hold-up took place at about 2.30 p.m. when the Italian man, who was in Malta to sell jewellery, was at the Papillon café, in St Joseph High Road, with another two Italian businessmen.
The thieves walked in, went straight to the man and demanded the haversack. When he refused to give it to them they fired two shots, hitting him in his left thigh, snatched the haversack and fled. The victim was rushed to hospital.
The getaway car, which had been stolen some time ago, was later found parked near a Ħamrun school in Triq Il-Vittmi Ħamrunizi. It had a stolen number plate.
Customers at the café gave their accounts to court experts appointed by Magistrate Antonio Mizzi to assist him in the inquiry.
Ħamrun residents said there had been about three robberies over the past few weeks in the area.
A few days ago, an elderly woman was robbed by a young man who stopped to ask her for directions. As she spoke to him he grabbed her necklace and ran away, one man said.
Two women, on their way to Papillon, remarked how lucky they were not to have been inside during the shooting. They too said robberies and theft had become too common in their hometown.