Rosamund Pike recalls brutal London street attack where she was punched in the face by a phone thief

Rosamund Pike has opened up about a frightening incident that happened years ago on the streets of London. While speaking in a recent interview, the Gone Girl and The Wheel of Time actress shared how she was attacked during a phone theft, a crime that has become alarmingly common in the city.

Pike was walking down a London street in 2006, speaking to her mother on the phone, when a young man on a bicycle rode past and punched her in the face, snatching her phone mid-conversation. Her mother heard a scream, then silence before the line went dead. “She thought something terrible had happened,” Pike said. “It was 15 minutes of panic before I could reach her again.”

Actress Rosamund Pike punched in the face as mugger steals her phone in LondonGetty Images

The attacker left her with a bruised cheek. Although the physical injury healed, Pike admitted that the experience left her shaken and angry. “He just came out of nowhere and hit me before I even saw his face,” she said.

Pike later made her way to a pub, where she borrowed a phone to call her mum back. “That short silence was probably more traumatic for her than the whole thing was for me,” she added.

The actress was speaking during a radio appearance to promote her thriller Hallow Road, a film about a distressed phone call from a daughter to her parents, a plot that reminded her of her own moment of fear.

Rosamund Pike recalls being punched in the face and robbed on London street Getty Images

Phone snatching in London has surged in recent years. According to police data, over 70,000 mobile phones were stolen in the capital last year, many by attackers on bikes. The City of Westminster recorded the highest number of thefts, followed by Camden and Southwark.

In another incident, former tennis player Annabel Croft was targeted outside King’s Cross station by a masked man on a bike. Although he rode off with her phone, he dropped it during the escape.

London’s Deputy Mayor for Policing, Kaya Comer-Schwartz, acknowledged that more must be done to curb such thefts. She called on tech companies to help make stolen phones harder to sell or reuse illegally.

Rosamund Pike left bruised after being punched in the face during London muggingGetty Images

Pike, who grew up in London, didn’t say if she ever filed a report. But nearly two decades later, the memory of that moment still lingers: a sudden attack, a bruised cheek, and a mother left waiting in fear on the other end of a dead phone line.