A group of knife-wielding thieves tried to carjack a man on the West Gate Bridge, before stealing a car from a woman and her child at knifepoint, in a dramatic crime spree across Melbourne on Sunday night.

The rampage ended at a house in Derrimut, where a family was held at knifepoint for 30 minutes while their home was ransacked by four masked men who had bashed their way in.

“Just after midnight we had our front door smashed down by four very dark-skinned, very tall guys, who held us at knifepoint, threatened to kill us," George, one of the victims, told the Star Weekly.

“My mum, dad, aunty and grandfather were all held with massive knives to their throats for 30 minutes while they bashed my dad.”

The violent spree had begun hours earlier, at 8.40pm in the city's south-east on Pasadena Crescent in Bentleigh East, when four men smashed their way into a home.