A woman and her three daughters escaped serious injury early yesterday after a man stole her van with the girls inside.

The woman, 30, told police she was delivering newspapers and parked her van on a grassy median on Kalakaua Avenue about 3:25 a.m. The woman said she walked across the street to fill a newspaper stand while her daughters, ages 4, 5 and 6, slept in the vehicle.

After filling the stand, the woman walked back to her van, but as she opened the door a man who had been sitting at a nearby bus stop approached from behind her, punched her in the face and began to choke her, police said. The woman broke loose and the man jumped into the van and started the vehicle.

The man began to drive off, but the woman managed to run to the back of the van and climb in through the rear door, police said. The man drove off down Makaloa Street while the woman screamed for him to stop and let her children out, but the man refused, police said.

Police said the woman made her way to the front seat of the van, grabbed a pair of scissors and threatened to stab the man if he did not stop. The man complied and got out of the van at Ke'eaumoku and Kanunu streets and walked away, police said.

The woman drove down Kanunu Street and flagged down a security guard, who called police. The man was found hiding in some bushes a few blocks away on South King Street shortly before 4 a.m. and arrested without incident. He remained in police custody last night pending charges.

The woman suffered a bruised eye and swelling to her face. Her children were not injured.

Reach Curtis Lum at culum@honoluluadvertiser.com.