One of the two young men who snatched a smartphone from a Thai woman in downtown Ho Chi Minh City on Monday was injured by a shot from the police who pursued and then seized them.

In the afternoon of April 7, a patrol police team of District 1 detained Tran Hoai Thuong, 22, and Ngo Van Thanh, 23, both from the Mekong Delta province of Hau Giang, after they stole a mobile phone from Aungkana Apinyarat, a 39-year-old Thai woman who was staying at a hotel in the district. According to the case file, while patrolling the city’s District 1 at 12:00 pm that day, a 4-member police team on two motorbikes spotted Thuong and Thanh traveling on a scooter in a suspicious manner. The team secretly followed the suspicious young men. When they reached the intersection of Phan Chu Trinh and Le Thanh Ton Streets in Ben Thanh Ward, the men drove up to Aungkana Apinyarat, who was standing on the roadside talking on her phone, and grabbed the phone from her hands. The thieves sped up to escape while the team pursued them through the streets. One of the police officers fired three shots into the air as a warning for them to stop, but the robbers continued to flee. When they entered Tran Hung Dao Street, the youth riding pillion kicked one of the two police motorbikes. Sergeant Major Nguyen Thai Duong immediately fired two shots at the engine of the robbers’ bike. One of the shots hit the thigh of the passenger, but they continued to flee. When they arrived at the intersection of Yersin and Tran Hung Dao Streets, Senior Lieutenant Nguyen Huu Hoang Minh drove his bike into the thieves’ scooter, causing them to fall to the ground, and arrested them. The police team recovered the smartphone from the robbers and returned it to the foreigner.  The team also took the injured, Ngo Van Thanh, to a hospital for treatment. The thieves will be charged with “plundering property” under Article 133 of the Penal Code, police said.

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