The man was taken to hospital with head injuries in a stable condition. It comes as two teens had their car stolen in a violent carjacking in Rosebud early on Thursday morning. The 17-year-old and 18-year-old were driving in a red Holden sedan on Waterfall Gully Road when a burgundy, older model 4WD tried to run them off the road, before crashing into their car, about 12.15am.

The Holden veered off the road and the teens were chased away on foot by three to four thugs. They stole the car, containing the teens' phones and power tools, and the Holden was found burnt-out a short time later on Trumans Road.

Police are investigating whether the carjacking is linked to a robbery on Hove Road when men in a similar 4WD stole a wallet and phone from a 27-year-old woman and 19-year-old man who were sitting in a parked car. They described one of the men as a medium-built Caucasian, wearing a dark-coloured hooded jumper pulled over his head. Police are also investigating a non-violent burglary in Geelong West about 2.45am on Thursday. A man crept into a Trigg Street home while a man and woman, both 28, were inside.

But the culprit fled when disturbed by one of the occupants. There were no injuries and it is not yet known if anything was stolen. In what is believed to be the first of six violent home invasions this week, a thief was chased out of a Mentone home by a 89-year-old man with an axe on Monday morning. The thief broke into the home, on Florence Street, and disturbed the sleeping man, about 6.30am. He stole two wallets, electrical garden equipment, a television, a mobile phone and other items, before being chased from the home, a police spokeswoman said.

A man who claimed to be the victim, Joseph, told radio station 3AW that he had held the axe and said he felt shaken after the robbery. There was also a string of violent home invasions across Melbourne overnight on Tuesday, which saw one man assaulted and a least four homeowners terrorised. At least three homes in Albion and Taylors Hill were broken into earlier this week, while a McDonald's outlet in Essendon was also badly damaged by offenders wielding garden stakes. There were 3228 aggravated burglaries in the year to September 2017, according to the Crime Statistics Agency, which averages out to 62 a week. Aggravated burglaries are when people are home during a robbery.

Out of this number, 1.5 a week are violent on average, making this week – only part way through – look extraordinary. Sofia Barbopoulos, 96, was asleep in her bed when she heard the offender break into her Gertrude Street home in St Albans in the early hours of Wednesday morning. Credit:Nine News A 96-year-old woman was among the victims of the home invasions as thieves struck properties in Skye, Bayswater, Brighton and St Albans on Tuesday night. Sofia Barbopoulos, 96, was asleep when she heard the offender break into her home in Gertrude Street, St Albans just after 4.30am. Ms Barbopoulos said she feared for her life when she confronted the man who was raiding her home with his face covered by a hoodie.

"I thought he would kill me," she said. Chief Commissioner Graham Ashton said yesterday that police believed a "core group" of repeat offenders were behind a recent spate of home invasions and violent burglaries in Melbourne's west and north-west. Mr Ashton said a spate of this sort of crime could happen when repeat offenders were released from custody. "That happens, certain kids get out of custody and back to offending,'' he said. New legislation introduced on Monday will require the youth parole board to notify police when serious offenders are released or about to be released.