Updated 6.20pm

A 45-year-old Ħamrun man is suspected of being behind two separate armed robberies reported within 90 minutes of each other on Tuesday. 

The suspect was apprehended in his hometown at around 5pm, just hours after the crimes were reported. 

The first robbery took place in Qormi, where a man wearing a mask and a hoodie and armed with a gun walked into an office on Triq San Bartolomew at around 11.45am and demanded money from a 54-year-old employee before making a getaway with an undisclosed amount of cash. 

At 1pm, the police received a second emergency call, this time from San Ġwann, where a man armed with a gun walked into a shop of Triq R Caruana Dingli and ordered a 42-year-old woman inside to hand over money.

The woman started yelling for help and the aggressor fled the scene without having stolen anything.  

Investigators from the police's major crimes unit identified the car allegedly used in the crimes and tracked it to Ħamrun. Inside it, police found clothes which matched those used by the thief in both instances.

Magistrate Joe Mifsud is leading an inquiry into the cases.