Minneapolis police issued a crime alert Tuesday night after two women were accosted a few hours apart in the same downtown parking ramp.

The assailant was chased from parking Ramp C by bystanders following the second attack Tuesday afternoon. Police were still searching for him Tuesday night. The ramp is at 318 2nd Av. N.

The same man apparently had remained at the parking ramp for hours between the assault and police issued the alert out of concerns that his attacks could further escalate, said John Elder, a Minneapolis police spokesman.

"In the first one, he shoved her between two cars," Elder said. "The second one, he shoved her into a car. They both happened in the same parking ramp on the same floor within a few hours."

In the first assault, a man approached a woman about 2 p.m., asked her for a dollar. That attack apparently was thwarted when another person got off an elevator, scaring the suspect away, police said.

The second attack happened about 4:40 p.m. in the same location, when a stranger — believed to be the same man — forced a different woman into her car and assaulted her. The suspect then ran from the area, chased by witnesses who lost sight of him in the area behind Pizza Luce.

Elder said the woman was at a hospital and it was not yet clear if she'd been sexually assaulted.

The suspect is described as a light-skinned black male in his 20s with short curly hair and possibly light facial hair. He is about six feet tall and slender.

In the first assault, the man wore baggy jeans and a dull black leather coat, possibly with maroon sleeves. In the second assault, he wore the same baggy jeans with a plaid shirt.

Anyone with any information is asked to send a text to 847 411 (tip 411), enter MPD and the tip or call the tip line at 612-692-TIPS (8477). All texts are anonymous.

Joy Powell • 612-673-7750