Divers are searching for the body of a man who tried to evade arrest by jumping into a lake in the center of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky.
The man was being chased by police who saw him snatch a mobile telephone from a woman who was calling a taxi from a cafe near the edge of lake Kultuchnoye, the Kamchatka region's police department said Wednesday.
The thief jumped into the water and swam to the center of the lake before police lost sight of him.
It is not yet known whether the man escaped from the police or drowned.
Rescuers have so far only managed to find the man's jacket, which had the stolen telephone and his documents in its pockets.