Crowe helps Paris police identify mugger

Russell Crowe

New Zealand-born actor Russell Crowe helped police in Paris identify a mugger after seeing a couple being robbed as he left a restaurant in the French capital last month.

Although the attacker escaped, Crowe remembered his face and identified him to the authorities, the Irish Examiner reported.

The newspaper quoted an unnamed witness as saying: "It happened too fast for him to react but he got a good look at the thug's face.

"He comforted the victims until cops came, then he went to a police station and identified a mug shot.

"The mugger was then held in a line-up and Crowe made a positive ID."

In the United States, Crowe, 41, faces a further hearing on Friday of a charge that he assaulted a hotel concierge.

Some Hollywood sources have speculated that Crowe's US working visa may be at risk if he is convicted after the June incident in which he allegedly hurled a telephone at a New York hotel employee.

Nestor Estrada complained that he was struck in the face, leaving him needing stitches, in a row over the phone service at the Mercer hotel.

At an earlier hearing, Crowe appeared at a Manhattan Criminal Court in handcuffs after being arrested and remained silent as he heard the charges against him, which included second degree assault and criminal possession of a weapon.

- NZPA