A 35-year-old man is due in court in Halifax later today, charged with sexual assault.

Halifax police say a 27-year-old woman was attacked at about 3 o'clock Thursday afternoon.

She was walking near Chebucto Road and St. Matthias Street, near the Maritime Conservatory for Performing Arts, when a man grabbed her from behind and started sexually assaulting her, say police.

Police say he then tried to force her into an alley, but she fought off the man.

The suspect was arrested at about 8:30 last night, at Oxford and Berlin streets. Police say he is known to them. They say the woman was not physically injured.