Bengaluru, June 5: Former Manchester City boss and current West Ham manager Manuel Pellegrini and his wife were targeted by robbers in Santiago, Chile over the weekend.

The couple was held up at gunpoint with the arm pressed against Manuel's chest by gangsters while they robbed him and his wife.

Pellegrini and his wife, Carola Pucci and some of their friends went out for a meal at a local restaurant in Santiago last Saturday night when the incident occured.

One of the robbers reportedly pressed the barrel of his gun in the 64-year-old’s chest, before fleeing after hearing the sirens of police cars approaching.

Nevertheless, luckily police rushed at the scene early and chased the robbers to eventually hold them captive. Before surrendering to the Police, the gang of robbers reportedly fired some shot at them, however, no one was injured.

Local police chief Gonzalo Munoz following the incident said: “They fired two shots at officers and threw road spikes down to stop them from following as they sped off, which resulted in a police car being damaged.”

Pellegrini, who is from Chile and was appointed as West Ham's manager last month, also thanked the Police support in a Twitter post.

Pellegrini wrote on Twitter: “Congratulations to @Carabdechile for their speedy and brave reaction. I’m also thankful for the help of locals. I hope they give the Carabineros more resources to solve the problem of delinquency as soon as possible.”

This incident reportedly has shocked the local people, however, Pellegrini's son while recently talking about the episode has suggested the matter has not shocked his father a bit and insisted that while the mugging when others cringed in panic Pellegrini was the only one who defied them.

Juan Ignacio, 29, who resides in Santiago but wasn’t with his parents at that moment said: “Two masked men jumped out of a car and headed towards where my parents were. They showed their guns, shot once into the air and went to steal the wallets of the people.

“Only that my dad reacted, he was the only one who confronted them and stood up to them. So one of the men pushed his gun into my dad’s chest.

“But then the police were close by, just half a block away. They had been alerted by others who had seen the hold up taking place and went after them. They ran away and started exchanging gunfire with the police.”