diff --git a/C/stdpreds.c b/C/stdpreds.c
index ced0083d4..0b7337603 100644
--- a/C/stdpreds.c
+++ b/C/stdpreds.c
@@ -2503,6 +2503,70 @@ p_sub_atom_extract(void)
   goto start;
 }
 
+/* $sub_atom_extract(A,Bef,Size,After,SubAt).*/
+static Int
+p_sub_atom_fetch(void)
+{
+  Atom at = AtomOfTerm(Deref(ARG1));
+  Atom subatom = AtomOfTerm(Deref(ARG5));
+  Int offset = IntegerOfTerm(Deref(ARG6));
+
+  if (IsWideAtom(at)) {
+    wchar_t *s = RepAtom(at)->WStrOfAE;
+    wchar_t *ins, *where;
+    Int start, sz, after;
+
+    
+    if (!IsWideAtom(subatom)) {
+      /* first convert to wchar_t */
+      char *inschars = RepAtom(subatom)->StrOfAE;
+      Int i;
+
+      sz = strlen(inschars);
+      ins = (wchar_t *)Yap_PreAllocCodeSpace();
+      while ((ins = (wchar_t *)Yap_PreAllocCodeSpace()) + (sz+1) > (wchar_t *)AuxSp) {
+	if (!Yap_ExpandPreAllocCodeSpace(sizeof(wchar_t)*(sz+1), NULL, TRUE)) {
+	  Yap_Error(OUT_OF_AUXSPACE_ERROR, ARG5, "allocating temp space in sub_atom/2");
+	  return FALSE;
+	}
+      }
+      for (i=0;i<=sz;i++)
+	ins[i] = inschars[i];
+    } else {
+      ins = RepAtom(subatom)->WStrOfAE;
+      sz = wcslen(ins);
+    }
+    if (!Yap_unify(MkIntegerTerm(sz), ARG3))
+      return FALSE;
+    if (!(where = wcsstr(s+offset, ins))) {
+      return FALSE;
+    }
+    if (!Yap_unify(MkIntegerTerm((start = (where-s))), ARG2))
+      return FALSE;
+    after = wcslen(s)-(start+sz);
+    return Yap_unify(MkIntegerTerm(after), ARG4);
+  } else {
+    char *s = RepAtom(at)->StrOfAE;
+    char *ins, *where;
+    Int start, sz, after;
+
+    if (IsWideAtom(subatom)) {
+      return FALSE;
+    }
+    ins = subatom->StrOfAE;
+    sz = strlen(ins);
+    if (!Yap_unify(MkIntegerTerm(sz), ARG3))
+      return FALSE;
+    if (!(where = strstr(s+offset, ins))) {
+      return FALSE;
+    }
+    if (!Yap_unify(MkIntegerTerm((start = (where-s))), ARG2))
+      return FALSE;
+    after = strlen(s)-(start+sz);
+    return Yap_unify(MkIntegerTerm(after), ARG4);
+  }
+}
+
 
 static Int 
 p_abort(void)
@@ -3929,6 +3993,7 @@ Yap_InitCPreds(void)
   Yap_InitCPred("atom_length", 2, p_atom_length, SafePredFlag);
   Yap_InitCPred("$atom_split", 4, p_atom_split, SafePredFlag|HiddenPredFlag);
   Yap_InitCPred("$sub_atom_extract", 5, p_sub_atom_extract, HiddenPredFlag);
+  Yap_InitCPred("$sub_atom_fetch", 6, p_sub_atom_fetch, HiddenPredFlag);
   Yap_InitCPred("number_chars", 2, p_number_chars, 0);
   Yap_InitCPred("number_atom", 2, p_number_atom, 0);
   Yap_InitCPred("number_codes", 2, p_number_codes, 0);
diff --git a/pl/utils.yap b/pl/utils.yap
index 219790eec..8a274f2f3 100644
--- a/pl/utils.yap
+++ b/pl/utils.yap
@@ -520,6 +520,10 @@ sub_atom(At, Bef, Size, After, SubAt) :-
 	% extract something from an atom
 	atom(At), integer(Bef), integer(Size), !,
 	'$sub_atom_extract'(At, Bef, Size, After, SubAt).
+sub_atom(At, Bef, Size, After, SubAt) :-
+	% extract subatom from an atom
+	atom(At), atom(SubAt), !,
+	'$do_sub_atom_fetch'(At, Bef, Size, After, SubAt, 0).
 sub_atom(At, Bef, Size, After, SubAt) :-
 	atom(At), !,
 	atom_codes(At, Atl),
@@ -532,6 +536,17 @@ sub_atom(At, Bef, Size, After, SubAt) :-
 	'$do_error'(type_error(atom,At),sub_atom(At, Bef, Size,After, SubAt)).
 
 
+'$do_sub_atom_fetch'(At, Bef, Size, After, SubAt, I0) :-
+	'$sub_atom_fetch'(At, Bef1, Size, After1, SubAt, I0),
+	(
+	  Bef = Bef1, After = After1
+	;
+	  Next is Bef1+1,
+	  '$do_sub_atom_fetch'(At, Bef, Size, After, SubAt, Next)
+	).
+	    
+	
+
 '$sub_atom2'(Bef, Atl, Size, After, SubAt, ErrorTerm) :-
 	var(Bef), !,
 	'$sub_atombv'(Bef, Size, After, SubAt, Atl, ErrorTerm).