TORONTO

The hunt for a 46-year-old man sought for a frightening knife-point sex attack in the upper Beaches is over, Toronto Police said.

The search ended in Hamilton Friday — one day after a woman and a girl were attacked by a man who broke into a residence near Coxwell Ave. and Gerrard St. E.

“This was violent,” Det.-Const. Larry Vieira said, explaining the alleged attacker was armed with a knife.

The man forced his way into the home of a woman on Thursday, he said. Once inside, he sexually assaulted the woman who is in her 20s.

The man then turned his attention to a “young” girl in the same home and sexually assaulted her, Vieira said.

And before fleeing, he allegedly stole “items belonging to the woman.”

Vieira would not divulge the age of the girl or her relationship to the woman for fear of identifying the victims.

But he said both were treated in hospital.

“It was quite traumatic for them,” Vieira said of the attack, which prompted a manhunt.

Investigators quickly identified Elric Benjamin MacArthur as a suspect, released photos of the wanted man and appealed to the public for help finding him.

Police also warned that MacArthur was considered “armed and dangerous.”

As a result of “investigative leads,” officers from the Repeat Offender Parole Enforcement (ROPE) Squad tracked the Toronto man down in Hamilton and arrested him shortly before 2 p.m., Vieira said.

MacArthur will be returned to Toronto to face charges of sexual assault with a weapon, sexual interference, forcible confinement, break and enter to commit an indictable offence and robbery, he said.

Anyone with information regarding this case should call the Sex Crimes Unit at 416-808-7474 or Crime Stoppers at 416-222-TIPS(8477).