A St. Catherine University student reported that while she was out for a walk Sunday three men ambushed her and were laughing as they sexually assaulted her near the Ford plant in St. Paul.

The woman told campus police the attack occurred about 6 p.m. on a trail near Mississippi River Boulevard, according to a public safety alert issued by the school.

Campus police said the woman came to them Tuesday and they relayed to St. Paul police what she reported. A St. Paul police spokesman said the school has yet to turn over the name of the woman to police and she has yet to contact them, so they cannot begin to investigate.

Laura Goodman, the school's director of public safety, declined to specify the exact nature of the attack but said it would be considered first-degree sexual assault.

The woman did not say whether she was harmed beyond the sexual assault, nor did she say whether she sought medical attention.

"We know very little about the case, other than what she disclosed," Goodman said.

According to the alert:

The woman said she was walking south on a path near the Mississippi River, about 1 1/2 miles south of campus and noticed three young men following her. When the path cleared of other walkers, she said, the three grabbed her from behind and pulled her onto a muddy trail. Two of the men sexually assaulted her as the third held her down, the woman said.

PAUL WALSH