A man has been saved from his machete-wielding kidnappers by a husband and wife who were out looking at Christmas lights.

The couple were driving around Pakenham, southeast Melbourne, to look at Christmas lights when they noticed a man calling for help from inside a car about 9.50pm on Monday.

They followed the car as it travelled back towards Melbourne, the husband Chris noticing the man’s attempts to flee.

“They kept trying to get him back in the car and they kept closing the door on him,” he told 7NEWS.

“You could see him being pulled back into the car and he was trying to get out really the whole way.”

The couple then saw the 23-year-old leap from the vehicle on Homestead Rd in nearby Berwick before he was set upon by three people.

Footage taken of the ensuing incident showed the man lying on the road while being attacked by two people, one of which wielding a machete.

Managing to flee his captors, the man was able to flag down the couple who gave him refuge while the assailants fled.

“He was beside himself,” Chris said.

“He was saying ‘thank you so much. You guys saved my life’.

“He didn’t really want to go into what was actually happening.”

They took the man to a nearby car park where emergency services were notified of the incident.

He was then rushed to hospital with non-life threatening injuries and spoken to by police investigators.

“The exact circumstances surrounding the incident are yet to be established, however at this stage it is believed the parties were known to one another,” police said.

Anyone with information has been urged to contact Crime Stoppers.