Pickpocket cuts woman who confronted him

A knife-wielding pickpocket cut a woman on the street Friday evening in Hongkou district after stealing her mobile phone, local police said Saturday.

The woman was walking near the intersection of Siping and Yinxin roads around 7 pm when she noticed that the pickpocket had grabbed her phone, according to a microblogger who witnessed the incident.

The microblogger posted a photo at 7:41 pm that showed a man waving a knife at a woman.

"The man threatened the woman with a knife after she discovered that he had stolen her mobile phone and demanded that he give it back," the microblogger wrote.

The man took out a knife and the woman ran, but he chased her down and cut her even though she said she didn't want the phone back and begged him not to hurt her, according to the post.

The woman was taken to a hospital where she received several stitches for the cut, Hongkou police said on its microblog. The pickpocket had fled before police arrived.

The microblogger's post had been forwarded 8,090 times as of 3 pm Saturday.

The case remains under investigation.