A brave bystander has been filmed confronting a knife-wielding thug in central London.
The masked suspected phone thief brandishes a long blade and waves it in the air, in footage circulated on social media.
As he rode his bike in the middle of Tottenham Court Road, a Scottish man ran up and confronted him.
During the dramatic confrontation the person filming the incident later posted on Instagram could be heard saying nervously “oh, that's a big knife”.
But the “have-a-go-hero” is undeterred and continues to march towards the cyclist who is wearing a helmet and clad all in black.
Another member of the public hurls a plastic bottle full of liquid at the bike.
The Scottish man then shouts: “Come on, come on son” before the e-bike rider sped off.
The man was praised by social media users for his heroics.
One wrote: “Rambo knew he was 100 per cent gonna get knocked out on camera.”
Warning: This video contains strong language that some people may find offensive
A second said: “If you have a knife and there's a Scottish bloke still ready to fight you, run, run and swim”.
A Met police statement said: “Police were called at 12:34hrs to Goodge Street W1 to reports of a man on an Ebike with a knife. Officers searched the area but no one was found.“Officers are aware of the video circulating on social media.“Police have made an appointment to speak to a third party about the incident.”
Criminal gangs circle central London grabbing phones from tourists and Londoners and selling them on. Some of the devices are sent overseas or stripped down for parts.
The Government has pledged to crack down on phone thefts after the number of incidents soared by more than 150% last year.
An estimated 78,000 people had phones or bags snatched from them on British streets in year to March 2024, according to data from the Crime Survey for England and Wales.
This represented a 153% rise when compared to the 31,000 incidents of “snatch thefts” in the same period to March 2023.
According to Home Office analysis of the data, there were more than 200 incidents every day across England and Wales in the last 12 months.
Central London is a hotspot for phone thefts as criminals consider it rich pickings with millions of tourists pouring in every year.
