Let’s hope feces flinging is not becoming a trend.

Toronto Police are investigation two separate reports of someone dumping urine and fecal matter at university libraries: One Friday afternoon at the University of Toronto’s Robarts Research Library on St. George St., and a similar crime on Sunday afternoon at Scott Library, on Keele St. at York University.

Distroscale

In both instances, the perpetrator was male.

Police spokesman Const. Allyson Douglas-Cook was unable to confirm any of the details currently being shared on online forums — where student eyewitnesses claim that, in both cases, the person attacked was Asian. There is already speculation that these horrific attacks were some sort of hate crime.

Douglas Cook could confirmed Monday that the two incidents are thought to be connected.

“We do believe the incidents are connected in one way or another,” she said. “We just need a bit more clarity and a few more details to confirm that. There are a lot of similarities between the two incidents, but we have to gather more information.”

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In Sunday’s incident, police say a man entered the library carrying a bucket filled with “liquefied fecal matter.”

“He poured the contents of the bucket onto an unsuspecting person who was seated at a table,” Const. David Hopkinson said in a news release, explaining the man then fled the scene.

Police have released an image of a suspect, described as a man believed to be in his 20s, with a medium build, who was wearing a black hat, blue top, light-coloured pants and black gloves.

Anyone with information regarding the suspect’s identity or whereabouts is urged to call police at 416-808-3100 or Crime Stoppers anonymously at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477).

Earlier in November, a mentally ill homeless man in Los Angeles attacked a woman who had been sitting in her car and poured human waste over her head.

The potential for infection and serious illness mean that she will require ongoing treatment.

HEALTH RISKS

Gross, stupid, disgusting — and fatal?

Someone throwing human feces around sounds like a sick joke, and it is. It’s also incredibly dangerous.

Here’s a partial list of what you can get through exposure to human poop:

— Cholera, typhoid, hepatitis (A and E), polio, cryptosporidiosis, (which is a diarrheal disease caused by parasites) ascariasis (parasitic roundworms), schistosomiasis (another disease caused by parasitic worms) and giardia (another parasite). Oh, goodie! Pinworms and tapeworms!

— Other concerns include such bacteria as shigella, which causes food-poisoning like symptoms, including bloody diarrhea, fever, stomach cramps and pain; ditto salmonella, campylobacter, E coli, and plague-causing yersinia.

— Even viral illness such as rotavirus and norovirus can be spread through feces, and the diarrhea, vomiting, and fever involved can be very dangerous for babies and the elderly.