Mexico City, Sep 8 (IANS/EFE): A 69-year-old Mexican woman, driving an SUV, chased and ran over a thief who had previously robbed her husband of $3,400, police said.

Mexico City's Public Safety Secretariat Saturday said the incident occurred after the couple withdrew the cash at a bank and drove away.

The couple was intercepted by a car "from which an individual got out carrying a firearm, with which he threatened the man in the passenger seat and demanded the cash", the secretariat said.

After the first refusal, the assailant struck the husband, 59, grabbed the money from him and returned to his car with the loot and tried to escape.

The police said the wife "could not stand for the attack on her husband" and set out after the assailant, who as a result crashed his car into a tree.

The thief got out of his car, shot at the woman and tried to escape on foot, but she chased him down and ran the car over his legs.

The assailant, who was arrested, had "exposed fractures in both legs", Police said.

At the site of the incident, cops confiscated the cash and a .380-caliber pistol. The woman driver was also taken into custody.