Minutes after the Angelus bell struck on Saturday morning, a bullet scraped 79-year-old Frank Zampa’s left cheek at the jeweller’s shop ­bearing his name in St Lucy Street, Valletta.

As he was saying the prayer, three armed men had stormed into the shop shouting incomprehensibly. He retaliated, yelling “Ajjut, ajjut” (help) at the top of his lungs, and his cry was reportedly heard from outside the law courts and the sacristy in St Paul’s Church.

Mr Zampa was about to have a close shave with death as he heroically beat back his aggressors.

“To my right, a tall man grabbed my throat and tried to push me down to the floor. Another man pushed me aside and pointed a revolver in my direction,” the jeweller told The Times from his Valletta home ­yesterday.

“I lifted my hands shouting ‘don’t shoot, don’t shoot’, and they thought I’d surrendered. But as soon as I lowered my hands I lunged at his revolver, taking it in my hands and pushing it in his direction.”

As Mr Zampa and his attacker came chest to chest, wrestling with the gun, the weapon went off – and Mr Zampa didn’t feel the bullet skimming his skin.

“At that point, all I could think of was to put up a fight. I wanted to prevent these men from robbing my son’s shop at all costs. I didn’t consider that I could have been killed,” the septuagenarian said.

Mr Zampa looked down at his shirt and didn’t see any blood. This made him think the gun was firing blanks and it gave him the confidence to keep fighting the man holding the gun, even as the taller man was hitting him unabated. “You can only fight one man at a time,” the ex-waterpolo player explained.

After seeing this commotion, the third man, who was crouching on the floor ready to fill his sports bag with jewellery, got up and dealt a blow to Mr Zampa’s face with an iron bar, which, as it turned out, did not appear to have caused him any damage.

As if the shock so far wasn’t enough for one day, the taller man pulled out a taser gun “about a foot and a half long” and zapped Mr Zampa in the neck.

“As soon as I felt the shock, I lashed back at him and luck had it that I knocked the taser out of his hands,” Mr Zampa said.

Struggling with all three men at the same time, the huddle began moving slowly towards the door.

Praying “Jesus help me, Jesus help me”, the 79-year-old gave one final push and they all fell to the ground.

The robbers got up and ran away but even then Mr Zampa ran towards one of them to try and stop him. The man escaped, throwing Mr Zampa to the floor, from where he could not get back up. All of this took place within not more than four minutes.

“If the fight had lasted more than that I wouldn’t have made it,” Mr Zampa admited.

The bullet grazed his skin, ­leaving him with a dark burn on his left cheek, which, although visible, is already ­healing.

In the 68 years that Mr Zampa has been running the family business – he took over aged 12 after his father died – this was the first time something of the sort has happened to him.

Having retired four years ago, the pensioner was preparing the shop for his son Renato, who now runs it.

Every morning, Mr Zampa wakes up at 5, goes out to 7 o’clock Mass at St Paul’s, comes back to his flat and has tea and toast for breakfast. Up until Saturday, he used to leave home at 7.45 to get the shop ready for his son.

But after spending a sleepless night on Saturday, the 79-year-old has decided against a repeat of Saturday’s performance – he will stay in watching television just a little bit longer.

“Life is too beautiful,” he says, conceding that he had got his priorities wrong when he risked his life to save his son’s gold.