Palo Alto police are searching for two suspects who punched a woman in the face during an attempted purse snatching on Saturday at the Stanford Shopping Center.

The victim, a woman in her 20s, threw her cup of hot coffee at the man who tried to snatch her purse from her shoulder, police said in a news release Monday.

“In response, the suspect punched her once in the face with his fist, causing the victim to scream,” police said.

The woman reported the incident to police at 10:19 a.m., about 30 minutes after the robbery attempt.

The woman was walking in the parking lot nearest the corner of El Camino Real and Quarry Road at the shopping center, 180 El Camino Real, when two men on a bicycle rode up to her.

The primary suspect, who allegedly grabbed the woman’s purse and punched her, was standing on the pegs of the rear wheel, while the man’s accomplice was pedaling, police said.

After the encounter, the primary suspect jumped back onto the rear of the bicycle and the two rode toward Quarry Road.

The victim sustained a minor injury to her face, but declined medical attention at the scene, police said. It’s unclear if the suspect was injured, police added.

The victim describes the primary suspect as a black man in his 20s who is skinny and tall, between 6 feet 3 inches and 6 feet 5 inches, with a “squared-off flat-top haircut.” He was wearing a red, V-neck cotton T-shirt and black jeans.

The victim describes the accomplice as a white man in his 20s with a thin to medium build and short brown or black hair. He was wearing blue jeans and a “gray, short-sleeved shirt with thin black horizontal stripes on the body and a floral design on the collar and end of the sleeves.”

“The victim could only describe the bicycle on which they were riding as not a small BMX-type,” police said.

Detectives are actively investigating this case. They say the incident is not connected to two other robberies that occurred at the Stanford Shopping Center earlier this month.

On Jan. 7, a man snatched a purse from a lone woman in her 40s and got into a getaway car with multiple passengers.

Police say the driver of that vehicle returned to the Stanford Shopping Center on Jan. 10 and attempted to grab a purse from another woman in her 40s who was walking with her mother. A witness noted the vehicle’s license plate number, which led police to arrest the driver, Delbin Noe Hernandez-Elvir, 38, of San Francisco, and Oscar Manuel Elena, 33, who was in the vehicle at the time of the arrest.

Anyone with information about the incidents is asked to call the city’s 24-hour dispatch center at 650-329-2413.

Anonymous tips can be emailed to paloalto@tipnow.org, sent via text message or voice mail to 650-383-8984, or submitted through the Palo Alto Police Department’s free mobile app, which can be downloaded at bit.ly/PAPD-AppStore or bit.ly/PAPD-GooglePlay.