Story By: Simon Glover, Sub Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Asia Wire Report

Video Credit: AsiaWire/@pontianakmedia

A young schoolgirl has been hailed a hero after she rammed her scooter into a thief who had just snatched her smartphone shortly before her 15th birthday.

Febrian Alia knocked the snatch thief – and herself – to the ground in the dramatic incident in the Sungai Raya area of the Indonesian province of West Kalimantan in the southern part of the island of Borneo.

Onlookers grabbed the 37-year-old thief while the teenager retrieved her smartphone from the man and was filmed by eyewitnesses checking it had not been badly damaged.

Pictures Credit: AsiaWire & AsiaWire@febryn_al

The footage showed Febrian bleeding from her mouth and nose but she seemed more concerned about her precious phone than she was about her own injuries.

Febrian had got off her bike to use a cash machine, just outside the state capital city of Pontianak, when a thief on a motorbike snatched her phone from her pocket and rode off.

Such crimes are common in Indonesia but Febrian was clearly not prepared to accept the loss of her phone and jumped back onto her own bike to give chase.

She caught up with the thief and rammed her motorcycle into his, making them both fall off, before eyewitnesses grabbed the man and held him until cops arrived.

Police later arrested the 37-year-old man, named only by his initials of K.Y., who officers said faced robbery charges and a likely jail sentence as he had a long list of convictions for similar offences.

Febrian, who reportedly celebrated her 15th birthday the day after the incident, retrieved her phone from the man and is seen in the eyewitness footage checking it for damage.

Under Indonesian law, the minimum age to ride a motorcycle is supposedly 17. However, teenagers under that age are commonly seen breaking the law without punishment.