Man arrested after consecutive theft attempts, injuring shopowner

A 28-year-old man from Sliema was arrested by the police after he allegedly tried to steal from at least two Msida shops, and injured the owner of one of them.

The police said that while they were on a patrol in Triq Victor Denaro, a young woman emerged from a shop and informed them that a man had tried to steal money from her shop’s cash register, but failed, and instead took some small objects and fled.

After setting off to look for the thief, the police noticed a man in a shop in Triq FS Caruana who seemed to have suffered some injuries.

It turned out that the man - a 54-year-old from Siggiewi - was the owner of the shop, who had allegedly been injured by the same thief as he tried to steal from his shop.

The shopowner was taken to Mater Dei Hospital, where his injuries were found to be serious in nature.

The alleged aggressor was eventually spotted by the police and Rapid Intervention Unit officers next to yet another shop.

He was arrested on the scene and is being held in custody to help in ongoing police investigations.