Since they were warned about a string of “prowler events” that may be linked to a recent sex assault at UBC, roommates Beryl Peng and Sophie Qing have been taking extra precautions to protect their safety.

“We go to the showers together now,” Qing said on Sunday.

“Because we are afraid,” Peng added.

Just two days earlier, a 20-year-old student was attacked on campus in the 3200 block of Wesbrook Mall. Mounties say she was approached from behind by a stranger, who had emerged suddenly from a wooden area at about 10 p.m.

The man grabbed the young woman and violently shook her with both arms, forcing her to the ground face first, according to RCMP.

“The male suspect proceeded to rub his midsection against the woman’s back in a sexual manner,” Sgt. Drew Grainger wrote in a press release.

“During the course of this violent assault, the woman managed to fight off her attacker, causing the male to let her go and flee in an unknown direction.”

The victim called 911 and got emergency medical attention. The side of her head was bruised from where the man had slapped her during the attack.

Investigators believe that the assault may be linked to a series of five incidents reported since last Wednesday involving an unknown man in the women’s residences at Place Vanier and Totem Park. The man, who fits the same description as the suspect in the sex assault, has been seen lurking around the women’s showers and rooms, and has fled when the residents noticed him.

Peng and Qing live in Place Vanier, but they only learned of the prowler on Saturday, when UBC’s vice-president of students Louise Cowin sent out a campus safety alert.

“I think that before we felt like it’s safe (here) … but then we heard it’s happening in the residences, in the building, so maybe it’s less safe than before,” Peng said.

Students have noticed an increased police and security presence on campus in recent days, but point out that fears about attacks on young women are nothing new at UBC.

“I don’t like walking around by myself at night,” Place Vanier resident Riley Davies said.

“It has been a thing that we’ve known about since we got here, that there’s a high sexual assault rate.”

Another student, Luisa D.G., said that while UBC officials seem to be doing what they can to protect students, it could be maddening to feel so unsafe on campus.

“It’s just frustrating, because we do feel afraid sometimes to go out,” she said.

According to campus security data, there were seven on-campus sexual assaults reported in 2015, although reporting rates for this particular crime are notoriously low. According to the Canadian Department of Justice, the majority of sexual assaults are never reported.

Attacks by a stranger make up only a small fraction of all sex assaults. About 80 per cent of all sex assaults in Canada are committed by a family member, friend, or acquaintance.

UBC recently came under fire for its handling of acquaintance sex assault cases after a CBC documentary revealed that the school had taken more than a year-and-a-half to expel a male graduate student who was the subject of complaints from at least six woman. Interim university president Martha Piper apologized after the broadcast and vowed to do better, and the school has put together a committee to draft a new policy on sex assaults.

RCMP is asking anyone with information about the prowling incidents or the sex assault on Friday to call 604-224-1322 or report anonymously through Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS.

The suspect in the sex assault is described as a darker-skinned man in his mid to late 20s who smells of tobacco. He’s said to be about 5’10” tall with a slender build, and was wearing dark coloured clothing, possibly including a hoodie.

With files from Nick Eagland, Postmedia News

blindsay@postmedia.com

Twitter.com/bethanylindsay

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