A suspected mobile phone thief got a dose of instant karma when he ran across a road and was hit by a car.

CCTV footage shows the moment the alleged crook got off a bus with a passenger’s phone and ran straight into the path of an oncoming car.

The video shows how he was tossed over the bonnet into the air and landed on the tarmac with a thud.

Eyewitnesses told police that the man had robbed a 48-year-old woman on the bus in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, moments earlier.

The theft victim told police how he had legged it off the bus immediately after snatching her phone.

But seconds later, he was hit by the oncoming taxi.

The taxi driver told police that the man had only run out from behind the bus and into his view at the last minute, by which point it was impossible to brake without hitting him.

He sustained multiple injuries to his body and was taken by paramedics to Odilon Behrens Municipal Hospital.

Police did not reveal his identity but said he was 36 years old.

His current condition is unclear.