Two Minneapolis college campuses reported two robberies of students carried out in similar ways roughly 20 hours apart.

Police have yet to say whether they believe the same suspects pulled off both crimes, one at Augsburg University and the other four blocks away at the University of Minnesota. No one is jailed in either holdup.

About 1:30 p.m. Sunday near the entrance to Augsburg's Anderson Hall, according to campus police, two young men approached a 32-year-old student and asked him for the time. One of them then drew a black semiautomatic handgun from his waistband and took the student's wallet, shoulder bag and cellphone.

The student was ordered to remove the phone's SIM card, which holds the device's identifying data unique to its owner, and to disable the GPS setting.

Both suspects fled westbound toward 20th Avenue S., campus police said, and a witness spotted a black Honda or Acura speeding on 20th toward Riverside Avenue.

The suspect with the gun was described as a black male in his late teens to early 20s, 5 feet 10 to 6 feet tall, with a thin build. He was wearing a waist-length black jacket over a maroon hooded sweatshirt. He appeared to be cleanshaven and have short black hair.

His accomplice was described as also a black male in his late teens to early 20s, 6 feet to 6 feet 2 inches tall, with a thin build. He wore a gray hooded sweatshirt and khaki pants.

The second holdup occurred about 9:35 a.m. Monday on the sidewalk outside Hanson Hall on the West Bank of the University of Minnesota.

One suspect "used a semiautomatic handgun to threaten the victim" and took the 27-year-old's purse and cellphone, a statement from the school read. The gunman fled in a gray Volkswagen Jetta, the statement added.

A few hours later, police traced the phone and located the gunman and other suspects about a mile south in the 2200 block of 23rd Avenue S. and arrested them, according to police dispatch audio. A gun was in the car, the officer said.

The suspects in this crime, men 18 and 19 years old and a teenager under 18, were released from jail without charges as the investigation continues.

The U declined a request from the Star Tribune to release descriptions of the suspects.

Paul Walsh • 612-673-4482