Police in Sweden have arrested a man in connection with a shocking viral video that shows him spitting on and hitting a woman with her children.

Last Thursday morning, police report that the man, "punched and spat on a woman who stopped him from trying to steal from an elderly person." 

The incident, which took place at the Old town underground station in Stockholm, was captured on the station's CCTV. The footage was uploaded to YouTube by Swedish news website Friatider and went viral across social media.

Police gave credit for the arrest to the video going viral saying, "the man was arrested in northern Stockholm on Friday, thanks to tips received from the public."

The clip shows a dark-skinned man with a beard apparently reaching into the bag of an elderly woman in front of him. A woman next to him notices and pushes the elderly woman away from the alleged robber. The woman is then spat at, and kicked by the young man as the woman's children look on by her side.

Stockholm police have also reported that a state prosecutor has decided to prosecute the arrested man for attempted aggravated theft, assault and molestation. 

The woman in the video also reached out to Aftonbladet describing her experience saying, "I saw his eyes, he was so angry with me. A normal reaction would have been (for him) to run away and not attack me with two children. It's super disgusting. I think of what could have happened, he could have had a knife on him and attacked me that way."

Even through the traumatic experience the woman remained defiant, telling the paper, "I would do it again," and said she thinks more people should intervene in such cases noting that in Sweden, "people are extremely bad at standing up for each other."