Brighton carjacking victim, Danielle. Credit:Courtesy of Nine News "I knew something was wrong when I saw this car doing a U-turn to follow me," Danielle told radio station 3AW. "I just literally put my foot down to get away from them. "I wasn't sure [whether I] should drive to the police station, or should I drive to someone's house because I didn't know what they wanted to do. " Danielle drove down a side street and ran into a house in search for help.

Danielle says she feared for her life in the Brighton carjacking. Credit:Courtesy of Nine News But the men, who were all of African appearance, caught up and pounced upon her. "They cornered me, and punched me, grabbed the keys out of my hand," she said. A Mercedes sedan similar to the car stolen from a Port Melbourne home on Thursday morning. "I am so scared. I have never been so scared in my life."

Luckily, she had the presence of mind to throw her phone into a garden of another house. A Mercedes sedan similar to the car stolen during a Port Melbourne home invasion. After the men left, Danielle called the police. "I just hid, I just hid, I don't know how long, maybe five, 10 minutes before the police came," she said. Danielle said the encounter has left her with a black eye.

"They pulled my hair, I am just sore, just shock, I am not in a happy space," she said. "I don't know how you are supposed to deal with this. "We live in Melbourne not in Johannesburg, this is not the norm, and it is becoming the norm, this is ridiculous." Police said the men also stole jewellery from the woman. The men fled in the Corolla, which later collided with a Holden Statesman at the intersection of Glen Huntly Road and St Kilda Street in Elwood.

The driver of the Holden, a 55-year-old Eltham woman, was uninjured, but her car was wrecked. The men fled in a dark sedan. It is unclear whether this sedan was also stolen, a police spokeswoman said. In a separate attack, about 4am on Wednesday, a family were woken in their Port Melbourne home by three intruders. One of the intruders struck a 53-year-old man who lived in the house with an axe, leaving him with a cut to the head. Police said the trio then stole mobile phones and the keys to the family's 2014 Mercedes sedan before fleeing the Ross Street property.

The men were last seen travelling east on Ross Street in the car, which has the registration VAS 469. The victim's son told 3AW the attackers appeared to be aged in their teens and of African descent. "To see three ... people like standing at my door, attacking my dad with an axe has even more mentally scarred me and my mother," he said. "And just the fact that they are bloody 16-, 17- year-old pathetic low-life scums that get paid by people to do these acts." Family friend, Jim Neskakis, told 3AW the family feared the thieves may have followed his friend home in his Mercedes.

"They took one of the cars, but the car was parked across the road in parallel parking. That car could have belonged to 20 houses in the area .. they came in there to take the car ...all of a sudden they knew where he lived." He said the father was treated in hospital, but was lucky to be alive. "He received a heavy hit to the head with an axe. Luckily he got hit by the blunt side of it, otherwise he wouldn't be here to speak to anyone," Mr Neskakis said. "He is angry, he is shaken, his wife is breaking down, crying … complete mess." Mr Neskakis said the thugs also caused extensive damage to the house. "The staircase balustrade has been smashed, doors have been smashed, holes put through the wall with an axe."