Lawrence police are looking for a suspect in an attempted mugging reported Saturday night in the 1300 block of Ohio Street, where a female Kansas University student reported that an unidentified male assaulted her and tried to steal her purse.

The attack was reported to police about 10 p.m. Saturday, when the victim said a male approached her from behind and assaulted her while she was walking near the intersection of 12th and Kentucky streets, said Sgt. Trent McKinley, a Lawrence Police Department spokesman.

The victim said the assailant shoved what she believed to be a gun into her back and tried to take her purse. Failing to take the purse away the the victim, he fled before the victim called police. The suspect has been described as black, about five-foot-six or five-foot-eight, heavyset, with a very short haircut.