Actress Rosamund Pike says she was punched in the face by a "mugger" on a bicycle during a violent mobile phone robbery in London.
The Wheel of Time star, 46, was on the phone to her mother when the attacker struck, snatching the device from her hand.
She says she screamed in shock, while her mother, Caroline Friend, was left fearing the worst until Pike was able to call her back on another phone, Mail Online reports.
Pike, who also starred in Die Another Day and Gone Girl, told Magic Radio: "I was on the phone to my mother — on a mobile phone walking along a road — and I was mugged.
"The phone was snatched so all she heard was me scream and a thud and the phone went dead."
She described the attacker as "a kid" who cycled past her before punching her in the side of the cheek, leaving her with a bruise.
Pike, who was born and raised in London, is the latest celebrity to fall victim to a spate of phone thefts in the capital.
Last year, former tennis star Annabel Croft, 58, revealed how a mugger snatched her phone as she waited for a taxi outside King’s Cross station.
She said: “The man was riding a bike and wearing a black balaclava. He rode straight at me and took my phone clean out of my hands.
“He rode away with it but luckily dropped my phone so I got it back. Terrifying!”
Figures last year from the Office for National Statistics show a 34 per cent rise in knife-point robberies in London, including those carried out on bikes.
The Standard’s Joe Bromley wrote how he never uses his phone openly in Soho now due to the surge in handset thefts.
Data shows over 70,000 mobile phone thefts took place in London last year, with criminals using methods from violence to distraction techniques to carry out their crimes.
The worst-hit borough was the City of Westminster, with its flurry of tourists and theatre-goers, with 18,863 reported incidents in 2023. Camden was the second worst affected, with 4,806 incidents, followed by Southwark (4,376), Hackney (2,761), Newham (2,585), Lambeth (2,394) and Islington (2,117).
Kaya Comer-Schwartz, London's Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime, told media there is “more to do” to tackle phone thefts, despite a decrease reported in December last year.
She said: “As the criminal demand for high-value mobile phones continues to grow globally, the Mayor and I are clear that companies must go further and faster to make it harder for stolen phones to be sold on, repurposed and re-used illegally,' she said.
“We'll continue to work with leading mobile phone companies, the Home Secretary and Met leaders to find innovative solutions to end the scourge of mobile phone crime.
“The success in tackling phone thefts comes after the Met moved out of special measures last month, following major improvements in many areas of service to London.
”These include responding more quickly to emergencies and strengthening neighbourhood policing to better respond to communities' concerns, including tackling theft and robberies.
“The Met is urging anyone who has lost or had stolen a phone to use the national mobile phone register so recovered handsets can be restored, via The Police National Mobile Property Register.”
