A gay couple in Venice were on their way home from a long day in the library at around 11.45 pm on Tuesday evening when they were approached by a group of four men in their twenties who began to hurdle homophobic insults at them and threatened them with a knife.

“Look at these here! Surely they are two fucking faggots,” the group of men exclaimed in a busy Venice street.

The aggression escalated further when the couple noticed one of the men wielding a knife. One of the attackers said, “Fucking faggots, you’re lucky that there are people on this street.”

“After answering that we were proud of the people we are, one of them comes to meet us and takes aim at Luca, telling him that he would break his face if there were no other people on the street,” one of the victims wrote on Facebook.

He added, “At one point one of the four boys pulls out a knife, threatening Luca in the worst possible ways.

“At that moment we were two simple people coming home from the library, like every evening. We did not talk, we did nothing but walk and smoke our last cigarette of that long day. The four boys seemed perfectly lucid and aware of what they were saying and doing.

“I wonder how it is possible that in 2018, in the historic center of Venice, city of art, student city, a place where a myriad of cultures, beliefs, religions and customs have met for centuries, can happen episodes of a level of ignorance of the genre (because this is pure ignorance, another expression to describe everything does not come to mind).

“And I still wonder how it is possible to be threatened on the street with a knife for fun. How is it possible that none of the passers-by has hinted to take our defences even just by calling the police?”

The two men reported the incident to the police, while many people who commented on the social media post noted the indifference of passers-by.

One wrote, “I am very pained as a Venetian and as gay. I can not conceive that these acts happen more and more often in Venice, not only of incivility but of pure malice and hate.”

“Shameful and aberrant, I’m very sorry you felt compelled to specify that you were not doing anything. You and your boyfriend have the right to embrace you and exchange gestures of tenderness like all the other couples in the world,” another wrote.