Pregnant woman punched in the stomach by phone snatcher outside Tube station

A 17-year-old boy has been arrested after CCTV footage showed a woman in her 30s being robbed outside of East Ham

A phone snatcher punched a pregnant woman in the stomach outside an east London Tube station.

A 17-year-old boy has been arrested after CCTV showed a woman in her 30s being robbed outside of East Ham station around 2pm on Tuesday.

Officers were able to track the victim’s phone to a home and arrested the teenager.

British Transport Police said: ‘Officers attended,and a teenage boy was arrested on suspicion of robbery.

‘We are committed to making the network a hostile environment for these offenders.’

Snatch thefts have increased by 150% in London over the last year,with one phone stolen in the capital every six minutes.

In February the Met Police revealed they had arrested 230 suspected phone snatchers and recovered 1,000 mobiles.

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In footage released by the Metropolitan Police,one plain clothed police officer is seen spotting a phone snatcher,in a dark blue backwards baseball cap and black jacket in Oxford Circus.

The thief had targeted an elderly person in the tourist hot spot,but one officer spotted the attack and tackled him to the ground in front of shocked pedestrians.

Commander Owain Richards,who is leading the Met’s response to phone thefts,said: ‘We are seeing phone thefts on an industrial scale,fuelled by criminals making millions by being able to easily sell on stolen devices either here or abroad.

‘By intensifying our efforts we’re catching more perpetrators and protecting people from having their phone stolen in the capital. But we need help from partners and industry to do more.

‘That is why we’re working with other agencies and government to tackle the organised criminality driving this trade and calling on tech companies to make stolen phones unusable.’

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