Story By: Anastasia Smirnova, Sub Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: CEN

Video Credit: CEN

This is the moment a robber is tackled to the ground in a citizens arrest as the sales assistant calls for cops on the phone.

The 33-year-old man, reportedly a drug addict, can be seen robbing a convenience shop in the city of Almetyevsk in western Russia’s Tatarstan Republic but he got more than he bargained for when he bumped into a brave man upon leaving the premises.

CCTV footage shows him hit a woman shopper on the side of the head with a bottle, and then demand cash from the woman behind the counter.

Pictures Credit: CEN

The robber, whose name has not been released, pulls a display case off the counter which crashes to the floor as the sales assistant tries to fight him off, while two women shoppers, one with a young child, flee.

The man demands 5,000 RUB (57 GBP) in cash but the sales assistant refuses and pulls the till onto the floor – out of his reach – behind the counter.

Some coins and a few banknotes spill out onto the counter and the thief grabs a 1,000-RUB (11-GBP) banknote and tries to flee the scene.

But the sales assistant goes after him and recruits a man who was walking into the shop at just the right time into helping her.

The good Samaritan agrees to help them and ends up in a brawl with the robber outside the store, quickly restraining him.

The crook was detained, with help from another man who arrived at the scene during the initial struggle, until cops arrived to arrest him.

Police took the man away and he faces charges of attempted robbery and up to four years in jail if he is convicted. He is reportedly a known drug addict with a criminal record for drug dealing.

Netizen ‘Arskiy’ said: “Good job! Thank god this robber didn’t have a knife or a gun hidden in his clothes. Sometimes it’s safer to let robbers escape and allow cops to do their job.”

Another online commentator, named only as ‘BamBino’, added: “Look how those women rushed out of the shop!”