Police nabbed a snatch thief and recovered RM21,000 that was snatched from a woman in front of a shopping centre at Kubang Kerian today.

Kota Baru police chief ACP Baharom Abdullah said during the 1 pm incident, a 36-year-old woman and her two children, aged five and eight, had just come out of an automated teller machine at the shopping centre.

"The victim and her children proceeded to the car and she was about to start the engine when a stranger opened the driver's door and grabbed her handbag placed on top of the handbrake handle," he told reporters at the Kubang Kerian police station, today.

Baharom said while screaming for help, the victim struggled with the thief but the snatcher managed to run off, before four policemen from a nearby beat overpowered the suspect and recovered the handbag and money.

He said police were hunting for an accomplice who managed to escape while the 19-year-old foreigner, believed to be a drug addict, was remanded for four days starting today.

- Bernama