Police detained four male teenagers, all aged 19, believed to be involved in snatch theft cases targeting foreign tourists in the city.

Kuala Lumpur's Dang Wangi district police chief ACP Zainol Samah said the suspects were arrested last Tuesday following a report lodged by a South Korean woman after two men on a motorcycle tried to snatch her handbag, around 6.30pm at Jalan Raja Chulan the same day.

In the incident, the two suspects failed to snatch the handbag when they fell from their machine before making their escape when members of the public realised what they were up to, he told a press conference in Kuala Lumpur today.

Zainol said police later arrested another two suspects who were behaving suspiciously at Jalan Nagasari about 7.20pm, and found out they were friends of the earlier two.

The victim, aged 28, is being treated at the Kuala Lumpur Hospital following an injury on her left arm, he said.

Zainol said checks on the suspects revealed that three of them were college students and the other jobless.

Three of the suspects also tested positive for drugs, he said, adding that police believed that hey had been active in the snatch theft cases since a year ago.

He added that police were tracking down another two suspects involved in the same cases.

Zainol said police also seized various foreign currency notes worth RM1,000, believed to be from the snatch theft activities.

He said following the arrests, police believed they had solved several snatch theft cases around Dang Wangi and Brickfields.

- Bernama