Montgomery County police say a sexual assault took place on Wednesday, Dec. 10 near this pedestrian bridge over Veirs Mill Road at the Wheaton Metro station parking garage. (Montgomery County police)

A man was taken into custody after an attempted kidnapping Thursday near downtown Wheaton, and detectives were investigating whether the attack might be linked to other recent crimes in the area, Montgomery County police said.

About 4 p.m., officers were called to the area of McComas and Brunswick avenues, police said. A woman told them that a man, possibly in his 20s, had tried to abduct her. She did not appear to have been injured.

A short time later, officers picked up a suspect in the area, and the victim identified him as the man who assaulted her, police said. Police said the man had a gun.

Police said they were looking at whether the suspect could be linked to a sexual assault and attempted sexual assault in recent days at a Wheaton Metro station parking garage.

On Wednesday, a 37-year-old woman was walking on the second level of the garage about 11 p.m. when she was approached by a young man who displayed a gun, said Cpl. Rebecca Innocenti, a county police spokeswoman. He made her go to an area near a pedestrian bridge that extends across Veirs Mill Road to the Metro station, then forced her to perform a sex act at gunpoint, police said.

The attacker heard someone walking up a nearby stairwell and fled, Innocenti said.

On Monday, about 9 p.m., a young man approached a 33-year-old woman in the same parking garage as she was opening the door of her car. While holding a gun at his side, the attacker demanded that she follow him toward the pedestrian bridge and perform a sex act. The victim refused, drove out of the garage and called police.

The attacker might have been spotted in the area Dec. 2. Police have spoken with a woman who said that about 9 that night, she was walking on the third floor of a nearby parking garage at the Westfield Wheaton shopping mall. She passed a person talking on his cellphone and holding a gun. She startled him, and he concealed the gun.

There was no sexual assault in that encounter, and detectives do not know whether it was related to the two later incidents.