Stepping up to a cash point in central Paris on Wednesday, a woman is summarily mugged by two teenage Roma gypsies.

Showing no fear or shame, and not even bothering to disguise their identities, they push her away and help themselves to cash before calmly walking away.

The unidentified victim shouts out, and manages to grab one her assailants by her jumper at one point, but is otherwise powerless to stop the assault.

Nobody bothers intervening in a crime that has become an everyday occurrence in the most popular tourist city in the world – one visited by hundreds of thousands of Britons every year.

Watch out! As the smartly dressed woman goes to withdraw cash from the ATM, her two assailants approach

Tussle: The women crowd her as they grab her cash in an ambush as it comes out of the machine

Struggle: She desperately tries to fight one of her attackers on the pavement in broad daylight

Tension: The shocking pictures are particularly embarrassing to authorities because they were taken just a few hundred yards from a high-profile trial of a Roma gang accused of dozens of thefts

The shocking pictures are particularly embarrassing to the Paris authorities because they were taken just a few hundred yards from a high-profile trial publicised as a clampdown on the growing menace posed by Roma gangs.

The Correctional Court at the city’s Palais de Justice has heard how Romanians Mariana Gandac, 25, and Sandra Baciu, 35 – both known as the ‘Queen of the Thieves’- coordinated thefts which were worth hundreds of thousands of pounds every year.

All took place around historic symbols of France including the Louvre museum, Eiffel Tower and Notre Dame Cathedral, which is just across the Seine River from today’s attack.

Seventeen defendants aged between 17 and 46, including Roma teenagers, deny theft and being members of a criminal enterprise.

The vast majority are gypsies like Gandac and Baciu who allegedly preyed on crowds of foreigners, stealing their money and valuables.

Others on trial include one French security guard who allegedly ‘turned a blind eye’ to what was going on in return for bribes.

Among the evidence are secret telephone recordings and air tickets which showed that many of the Roma travelled to and from Romania in between thefts, using their profits to buy houses and cars.

Help! The female commuter is apparently trying to seek aid from passersby on the street

Futile: The woman manages to grab one of the attackers by her jumper. But in the end they walk off, apparently unconcerned about hiding their identities and the possibility of arrest

Baciu was put under surveillance as she stayed in a Paris hotel, and was heard saying she ‘hated public holidays’ because there were too many non-tourists in the museums.

In April 2013 workers at the Louvre staged a walk-out because of the number of aggressive thefts, leading to the art museum closing temporarily.

Referring to the thieves, Paris police commissionaire Damien Vallot said: ‘It’s their profession, they steal all day. We are seeing a professionalisation of these pickpocket teams. Attentive and reactive, they moved from place to place depending on how many police were around.’

They were accompanied by aggressive beggars who asked people ‘Do you speak English?’ before diverting their attention with a fake petition calling for an end to world hunger.

Intimidation, violence and theft increases in the summer months, as fine weather attracts more unwary tourists on to the street.

When today’s cashpoint mugging ended, other members of the gang could be seen walking past the victim, on their way to another site.

Some carried the fake petitions, while burly men could also be seen lurking nearby as they ‘protected’ their partners in crime.

Aftermath: The muggers have disappeared but other alleged members of their Roma gang, including young women and a boy in a hoodie, stroll past their victim and a suited man as if nothing had happened

The woman victim, meanwhile, did not appear to make any effort to call the police. Officers usually let Roma sneak thieves off with a warning, because they are so hard to process through the criminal justice system.

Few carry any official papers, such as passports, and most do not have a fixed abode.

The post office cashpoint targeted today has been the scene of regular muggings, with the authorities apparently powerless to stop them.

This is despite it being just around the corner from a major police station in the busy Halles shopping complex.

Last year MailOnline also captured pictures of a British tourist being mugged by a Roma gang in exactly the spot. He too did not make a report to the police.

Roma communities from EU countries such as Romania and Bulgaria have caused huge controversy in France for at least the past decade.

Politicians including France’s Socialist Prime Minister, Manuel Valls, have publicly branded them as foreigners who ‘cannot integrate’ in the French way of life.

Mr Valls has continued a policy started by former president Nicolas Sarkozy of razing Roma camps, and trying to deport as many of their occupants as possible.

But this has led to protests from a number of human rights groups, including Amnesty International, which points out that most Roma in France are Romanian or Bulgarian and as such are EU citizens with the right to live and work in the country.

A spokesman for Charity group Catholic Help said clampdowns on Roma 'stigmatised a poor community' and amounted to 'racial profiling'- something which is illegal in secular France.

Asked to comment on the mugging, a Paris police spokesman said: ‘We will act on any reports of violence against anyone in the city. Everything possible is being done to clamp down on street crime.’