Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Police investigate alleged rape in Perth city centre alleyway

Police are investigating a serious sexual assault.
Police are investigating a serious sexual assault.

Police are investigating an alleged rape in the centre of Perth.

A team of uniformed and detective officers are quizzing residents and businesses after a 25-year-old woman reported an attack just off the High Street.

The incident happened in an alley between Ramsden’s and Superdrug at around 3am on Sunday.

Detective Inspector Marc Lorente of Police Scotland’s Divisional Rape Investigation Unit said: ‘‘We have a number of officers dedicated to this inquiry and I would urge anyone who might be able to identify the man responsible or anyone who saw someone matching that description in the area, to get in touch with Police Scotland.”

The culprit was around 5ft 8in, with a tanned complexion and spoke with a foreign accent.

Police have been going door to door and examining CCTV as part of the investigation.

An employee at the nearby Monterey Jack’s restaurant said: “We don’t know anything about what happened, but we have seen police going about in the area.”

News of the attack emerged after Chief Inspector Graham Binnie told Perth and Kinross councillors the number of serious assaults in the region had increased by a third.

Between April and September, 43 people were the victims of serious attacks in the area – 34% more than in the same months last year.

Mr Binnie said police were still trying to work out why there was a peak in violence around late July and early August but the incidents appeared to have “levelled out since then”.

The local area commander also revealed the number of rapes reported had dropped by a quarter and the number of indecent assaults had dropped by a smaller margin. However, detection rates for both categories also fell by 32% and 27% respectively.

Mr Binnie said this reduction was due to the number of historic incidents among the new cases being brought forward.

Anyone with information on Sunday’s incident should contact police on 101 or speak to any police officer quoting reference number 0590 of November 8.

Information can be given anonymously by contacting Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.