The stretch at Shastri Nagar in Patna where the chain-snatching incident occurred on Wednesday. Picture by Deepak Kumar

Patna, Jan. 18: With the chilly breeze going on a brief break, chain-snatchers today resurfaced on the city streets. They struck this morning at upscale Shastri Nagar.

The victim of the two bike-borne chain thieves was a middle-aged woman. She was on her way back home from a nearby grocery shop.

Sources said the victim, Archana Sinha, went to a grocery shop barely 500m away from her residence at Board Colony in Shastri Nagar. Shopping over, she started for her home around 11.30am.

All of a sudden, a two-wheeler came to a screeching halt near Archana. Two persons were riding it.

Before Archana could react, the pillion rider snatched her gold chain. Within fraction of a second, his associate pressed the accelerator of the bike and fled towards Rajiv Nagar.

Shastri Nagar police were clueless about the duo till late in the evening. “The woman saw the duo. Their sketches are being prepared. The police are investigating the matter and raids are on. The chain-snatchers will be nabbed soon,” said an officer.

Sources said Archana was sporting a sweater when the chain-snatchers struck because it was not very cold today. “Had the temperature been lower, she would have taken a shawl also. In that case, the job of the snatchers would have been difficult,” said a resident of Shastri Nagar.

The chain snatchers had struck in the town on January 15 also. Their victim was a woman returning from Patna Kite Festival organised at the Moin-ul-Haq Stadium. The crime spot was under the jurisdiction of Kadamkuan police station.

Before the January 15 incident, the last incident of chain snatching in the city was reported on November 27 — when the winter was just setting in.

Police sources told The Telegraph that the chain-snatching plummeted in the capital after the arrival of winter because few would come out on streets in the morning or evening with the temperature receding. Also, woollen clothes made the task of chain-snatchers difficult.