Moment crypto CEO's daughter, 34, and child, 2, attacked by knife gang in Paris

Horror footage shows the moment a crypto CEO’s daughter and her young child were attacked by an armed gang in Paris.

The alleged kidnappers are said to have attempted to snatch the 34-year-old woman - the daughter of unnamed millionaire - away from her two-year-old child in broad daylight. Police sources in the capital said the was only stopped due to the efforts of the child's father, who shielded her and took several punches, and suffered what appeared to be a wound to his upper back. An investigating source said: "They arrived in a Chronopost [delivery] van and attempted to take the mother away from her child. Her partner managed to fight the three kidnappers off"’

The source said the unnamed woman’s father was the chief executive officer of a crypto firm. It is feared that the gang may have been trying to take the woman hostage, before sending a ransom demand to her father.

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Videos posted on social media shows three men dressed in black and wearing balaclavas launching the attack. They first of all hit the partner, as the woman screams "Leave me alone!"

Footage filmed from nearby buildings show the woman being attacked while grabbing a handgun from a gunman, before throwing it away from him. In turn, her partner shouted: "Leave her alone, she’s pregnant!".

A witness described as a retired doctor called Jean-Jacques told the Parisien news outlet: "I heard screaming, so I went outside. I saw hooded, armed men running away, and I turned my head and saw a man with a bloody head, lying on the ground. There was blood everywhere, so I dealt with the wound."

Bystanders also came to help the victims, and the foiled kidnappers hurriedly sped away in their van. One of them is seen throwing what looks like a fire extinguisher at the vehicle as it drives away.

Paris’s elite anti-bandit bridgade, the BRB, is leading the investigation into the incident as the hunt for the assailants continues.

It marks only the latest attack on cryptocurrency investors and their families in France, sparking a probe among police into a possible organised crime connection.

Last week, police rescued the dad of a cryptocurrency millionaire who had been kidnapped and held for ransom in a suburb of Paris. In a striking similarity to the latest incident, police sources quoted by Le Figaro newspaper said the man had been targeted in broad daylight in central Paris.

He was mobbed by a group of men, and forced into a delivery van by four masked men in balaclavas. While he was being kept hostage, the kidnappers demanded a ransom of between $5.6million (£4.2million) and $7million (£5.2million) from his son.

The victim, said to be in his 50s, was reported to be missing a finger when he was eventually located in a property in Palaiseau, located south of Paris. Four suspects have been arrested.