Story By:  Ana Marjanovic, Sub-Editor: Michael Leidig, Agency:  Newsflash

A fast-food vendor turned into Captain America after using the lid from one of his pots as a shield to beat off an attacker.

CCTV images of the incident showed the person selling pushing a bike from which they are selling tamale, a traditional Mexican dish made with a corn-based dome filled with a mixture of meat, cheese and beans.

As they come into the middle of the footage, a possible customer approaches the bike and appears to be fumbling in a bag before pulling out a gun.

The vendor stands to one side and opens the lid showing the food and the man appears to be looking for money and other valuables including apparently the vendor’s mobile phone.

As the crook is looking he is distracted by a van that passes briefly, and the vendor then uses the lid like Captain America strapped to his arm and hits the armed robber over the head.

The crook then runs off one way, and the vendor in the other direction but as the crook disappears, the vendor then changes his mind about fleeing, and after shouting to raise the alarm, gives chase with the lid still strapped to his arm as a shield.

The incident took place in the Real Providencia neighbourhood of the municipality of Leon, in the Mexican state of Guanajuato.

A surveillance camera of a home captured the moment in which a subject, wearing shorts, a black shirt without sleeves and a black cap, approaches the merchant, who was walking to the side of his tricycle.

It was a bittersweet victory for the captain America wannabe, who although chasing off the thief did not manage to capture them and who lost the items that were stolen.

Police are still looking for the attacker.