Student, 23, raped in N. Liberties

A 23-year-old college student from out of state was robbed and raped in Northern Liberties Monday night, police said.

The woman, who is attending a university in Philadelphia, was walking up Fifth Street near Fairmount Avenue about 11:15 p.m. when she passed a man sitting on the curb, said Lt. Tom McDevitt of the Special Victims Unit.

The man followed her and told her he had a gun, McDevitt said. He forced her into an alley and onto a wooded lot in the 800 block of North Orkney Street. He robbed her and then raped her.

At some point she started to fight back and scream and "he smashed her face against a rock on the ground," McDevitt said.

After the assault concluded and the man fled, the woman called police and was later taken to Episcopal Hospital where she was treated and released.

The woman was in the neighborhood to visit a friend, McDevitt said.

The man was described as black, between the ages of 17 and 23, clean-shaven with short hair, about 5-feet 10-inches tall and weighing approximately 195 pounds.

He was wearing a white tank-top, light-colored jeans, a black belt and white tennis shoes.