In a bid to save himself the terrified driver instantly sprang into action slamming down the accelerator and crashing into the kid – sending him flying into the air.

Corporate manager Mario Campbell, was just slowing down at traffic lights in a township near Cape Town when a teenager calmly walked out into the dual carriageway. 

As the attacker raised his gun pointing it straight at the horrified father-of-two the car engine can be heard roaring as he floors the pedal and aims his Toyota Agya straight at him. 

The shocking dashcam video shows the hapless young criminal realising too late that the tables had turned and that he was now the one in danger – as 1.3 tons of metal was hurtling towards him.

The wannabe carjacker is somersaulted over the left side of the bonnet and lands on his back in the road at Khayelitsha township where some 2.5m live in poverty in shacks. 

Mario is no stranger to these attacks as he has been in a similar life threatening situation before.

He has an earlier video showing him speeding away from an axeman on the same stretch of road just metres from where he was held up at gun point this time around.

The businessman told friends on Facebook: “First a maniac with an axe trying to smash his way into my car then a kid who should have been at school holding me up with a handgun!

“That is it dudes I am taking a different way into work from now on – I just want to go to work and come home to my family safe”.

Thousands took to social media supporting Mario as his video went viral praising him for taking the law into his own hands and hailed him a “hero” for fighting back against criminals. 

Community leader Bongile Zanazo said the Mew Way Bridge where Mario was targeted is a carjacking hotspot that often sees car-jackings at gunpoint and knifepoint.

He said: “We are aware of the various crimes incidents that keep happening there and have put into place an stiff action plan to combat it but the details of that are being kept top secret. 

“We also implore the City of Cape Town to deploy more police officers to the area to prevent these crimes taking place”.

The first 28 seconds of chilling video footage shows Mario casually driving along the highway behind a station wagon and a minibus taxi.

However when he slows down to allow another car onto the road the gunman suddenly appears – seizing the opportunity to attack.

The youth had been biding his time and waiting for the perfect moment for his ambush – as he was seen sitting beside the road on a crash barrier.

He is believed to have selected his target after he saw the company logo on the car – as he suspected it would contain valuables.

Mario refused to comment for fear of reprisals after injuring the gunman who manage to escape limping back into the maze of shacks after being hit but a close pal said: “He is a very brave man.

“Three months before at almost the same spot a robber with an axe went after him but he got away and now he has run over a gunman – that is twice and you can only be lucky so many times.

“He now takes another route to and from work and is fully aware of his surroundings at every set of traffic lights” she said.

It is understood the thieves who menace dozens of miles of the local roads target company cars that are marked as it is likely they have laptops and expensive equipment on board. 

The local Khayelitsha Police Station has more carjackings reported than any other police station in South Africa and each year the country suffers over 22,000 such car incidents. 

Local Crime Watch volunteer Juwa Dimande said: “If you stop at a red traffic light, as a law abiding citizen would of course do, you are putting yourself at risk of an attack or even death. 

“They will smash your window and if you resist them they will shoot you.  Simple as that.  All the traffic lights do in Khayelitsha is change colour – nobody stops for them.  It’s too dangerous. 

“Even ambulances attending emergencies to save the lives of the township people are attacked and robbed and carjacked” he said. 

On June 30 Mario’s dashcam video which also records inside the car as well as outside picked up two men walking alongside his car on the passenger side as he pulled up at traffic lights.

It was just 200 yards from the set of lights where the schoolboy tried to carjack him with a gun earlier this month.

The footage shows two raiders knocking on his passenger window to distract him while a third robber armed with a vicious axe pulls it out from under his jacket and tries to smash his window.

Fortunately the blade bounces off the Toyota Agya window allowing Mario to hit the accelerator and speed off to safety.

Mario’s attack at gunpoint is the second recent robbery attempt in which a motorist has fought back after driver Sandy-Lee Ward was caught on CCTV being robbed of her handbag in her car.  

Sandy-Lee, 45, was sitting in her Toyota Tazz in Durban, KwaZulu-Natal Province, and about to put in her ticket to open a car park barrier when two robbers suddenly forced her car door open.

One reached in and snatched a gold chain from around her neck and the other her handbag and one ran to a waiting getaway car and the other ran across the forecourt of a nearby garage. 

Furious Sandy-Lee hit the accelerator and is seen on CCTV crashing through the lowered barrier and then accelerating straight forward the robber fleeing with her handbag. 

A second CCTV camera takes up the pursuit as a South African Police vehicle parked up and the robber is seeing running for his life while Sandy-Lee races her Toyota up right behind him. 

She hits him hard with the car bonnet and he is propelled 25 feet through the air landing on his back but drops the handbag containing her ID, phone, house keys, purse and credit cards. 

Sandy-Lee said: “A petrol attendant ran over and picked up my handbag from the robber then ran over and gave it back to me and laughed and said “Well done sister, you got one!” 

“I drove off and the police car chased me as it thought I was a hit and run but when I stopped and explained what happened they turned round and went and arrested the injured robber. 

“I just saw red when he stole my handbag and don’t remember driving through the boom and I don’t remember planning to run him over but I know I did hit him bloody hard and got him.

“I’m glad I never killed him but am also very glad I got my stolen handbag back” she said.

Like Mario, Toyota Tazz driver Sandy-Lee became the heroine of social media as her video also went viral with a number of lawyers offering to defend her for free if he police charged her. 

But South African Police have confirmed that they would take no further action against her but would take her victim to court for aggravated robbery – when he is well enough to leave hospital!

South Africa is one of the most dangerous countries in the world with some 76 murders a day and over 120 reported rapes.

-TheSun