BART seeks help identifying alleged groper

BART police are seeking information on a man alleged to have groped a woman on a train Wednesday. BART police are seeking information on a man alleged to have groped a woman on a train Wednesday. Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close BART seeks help identifying alleged groper 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

BART police are seeking the public’s help in the search for a man believed to have groped a woman on a Warm Springs bound train this week, the agency said Friday.

The assailant, estimated to be about 5 feet 8 inches tall and in his early 20s, boarded the train at the Richmond Station on Wednesday about 8:35 p.m., according to Alicia Trost, a BART spokeswoman.

He sat down next to a woman on the train, tried to start a conversation with her, then groped her, according to Trost.

Both the man and the victim got off the train at the North Berkeley station, and the victim fled, reporting the incident to a station agent who called police, Trost said in a statement.

The man was seen on a security camera at the Richmond station, but finding footage from inside the train car presents a challenge because the woman did not know the number of the car she boarded or the time she boarded the train, according to Trost.

“To view video from inside the incident car we must pull the potential cars from service and then retrieve the video and review it,” she said. “This is taking place now but we didn’t want to wait to get the image of the suspect from inside our station out to the public.”

Anyone with information on the alleged attacker can contact BART Police at (510)-464-7040.

Filipa Ioannou is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: fioannou@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @obioannoukenobi