A double amputee was stabbed in the chest in front of horrified shoppers at a cash machine.

Chris Lindo, 38, was knifed by a would-be robber in broad daylight near Brighton’s Churchill Square shopping centre.

Shoppers watched as Mr Lindo clutched a gaping wound in his chest while paramedics raced to the scene.

A passer-by called police and paramedics after witnessing the incident at 12.30pm yesterday.

Mr Lindo said he believed his attacker was preparing to rob him when he turned round and confronted him.

He said: “I was stabbed because a junkie wanted his next fix.”

The attack has led to new calls for a zero tolerance approach to knife crime and for a knife amnesty. It also follows The Argus’s Knives Cost Lives campaign.

City councillor Geoffrey Theobald said: “My own opinion is that judges need to be very tough with offenders.”

Police were last night still hunting the attacker.

Officers said they were following a number of strong leads. The man fled the scene, outside the Alliance & Leicester in Western Road, Brighton, in the direction of the Clock Tower.

Mr Lindo said he punched the offender after fearing he was about to be robbed.

He said: “I’d put my card into the machine and was waiting to type the pin number in and I could feel this guy behind me.

“It was like he was tapping my pockets to see what was in them. I turned around and said ‘What are you doing mate? Are you trying to mug me?’ “He was holding a can of beer and I could see he was on drugs. He was holding the knife behind the can. So I punched him. It was self defence.

“He stabbed me in the chest and ran off.”

Mr Lindo refused hospital treatment but was bandaged by paramedics.

A spokeswoman for Sussex Police said: “We haven’t located the offender despite a widespread search.”

She added that knife crime remains relatively rare in the city.

She said: “There are obviously isolated incidents here as there are across Britain.”

In the year to March, there were 259 knife crimes recorded by Sussex Police.

Three were fatal, 83 involved serious injury and 172 involved slight injuries.

Brighton Pavilion MP David Lepper called for a knife amnesty in Brighton and Hove and said carrying knives should be made less glamorous.

He said: “Too many people carry knives because they think it is cool. That has to stop.

“There should be an amnesty because they are proven to get these weapons off the street.”

Assistant Chief Constable Robin Merrett said: “Sussex remains a safe place to live and we have not experienced the level of knife crime that has been seen in some of our major cities.”

Brighton Kemptown MP Des Turner said: “We have to get the message through to young people that carrying knives is not cool.

“Even if we have tougher penalties, I’m not sure that would instantly stop them using knives. It is a very tough problem to cure.”

The Argus has been running its Knives Cost Lives campaign since July, demanding a minimum two-year sentence for those caught carrying knives, calling for an end to automatic early release for those convicted of knife crimes and for better education against carrying weapons.

The petition has attracted almost 900 signatures. To sign it go to theargus.co.uk/news/ knivescostlives.