The Los Angeles Police Department has launched a sexual assault investigation against actor Steven Seagal over an allegation said to have taken place in 2005.

A spokesperson for the LAPD has said a complaint is currently being handled by the Robbery-Homicide Division; they confirmed it to be an allegation of sexual assault, although no more information was offered. "All we can do is confirm that there's an open investigation from 2005," they added.

The actor, 65, has recently faced several accusations of sexual harassment, including from actresses Portia de Rossi, Julianna Margulies, and Rae Dawn Chong. De Rossi alleged the actor demanded a final, private audition for a film to test for chemistry, during which he "unzipped his leather pants".

Margulies similarly alleges that she was told by a female casting director to go to Seagal's room. When she entered his hotel room, she said: "I saw his gun, which I had never seen a gun in real life."

She added that she somehow, she managed to get out of the room, "unscathed." The actress said, "I never was raped. And I never was harmed. And I don’t know how I got out of that hotel room … I sort of screamed my way out."