A woman has been arrested in connection with a botched hold-up five years ago in Sliema.

The police said the 27-year-old was arrested after being identified as a suspect during investigations by the major crimes unit. 

The case happened in the evening of April 15, 2015 in Graham Street, Sliema.

The police said a family had just entered the common area of a block of flats when they were followed by a person wearing a mask and brandishing a knife, who demanded cash.

A man resisted and suffered knife injuries in the ensuing struggle.

The woman was arrested earlier on Monday and is being questioned at police headquarters, the police said.

No further details were given by the police.

At the time of the hold-up, Times of Malta had reported that the aggressor, then described as a man, was suspected to have been involved in multiple hold-ups.

The case in Graham Street involved a Serb couple. The Serbian man, 50, had suffered two knife wounds in the struggle with the assailant, who then fled empty-handed. 

Shortly after, somebody who fitted the description of the assailant was involved in another case in St John Bosco Street, Sliema, when a 73-year-old woman was slightly injured when she too resisted demands for cash.  The assailant ran off with some cash.  

About an hour later, the same assailant stopped a 55-year-old Maltese woman in Swieqi Road, Swieqi and again ran off with some cash.