A snatcher hanging outside a window as a passenger holds his arm on a moving train in Bihar.
A man trying to snatch a mobile phone from a train passenger through the window ended up on a nightmare of a ride — dangling outside, apologising, as passengers pulled his arms in, helping him live, but also chastising him. The September 14 video is from Bihar, where snatchings through train windows are reported routinely.
This train was nearing the end of its journey from Begusarai to Khagaria when the man tried his hand near Sahebpur Kamal station. But an alert passenger grabbed his arm instead. As the train moved, he pleaded to be let go, and eventually slid his other arm in through the window rails for the passengers to hold him afloat.
His journey lasted around 10 kilometers, and he was finally let go when the train was close to Khagaria. He ran away, locals told reporters. No information was yet available on whether the police took any action.
While this thief missed, another who went viral in June was quicker and more successful — some on the internet called him "the new Spider-Man". That video, also shot from inside a train in Bihar, showed a pickpocket perched on a bridge grabbing the wallet of a passenger through the window.
Also in June, a similar snatching attempt ended up in serious injury to a policewoman, who was pulled out of a moving train near the Katihar railway station, also in Bihar.
Aarti Kumari, a police constable posted in Nawada, was standing close to the door with her mobile phone in hand when the train slowed down near the station, and the snatchers struck. She resisted, at which the men pulled her out.