A woman was raped and a tourist from Wisconsin was beaten during the weekend in separate attacks three blocks from each other on Clay Street.

Police Lt. Bobby Stewart said this morning a description of the suspects was not available and he did not know if the crimes were related.

In the first, a pedestrian told Vicksburg police she was raped and robbed by two men who approached her in the 1300 block of Clay at 8 p.m. Friday, New Year’s Day.

She said one of the men sprayed her in the face with an irritant, dragged her behind a building and knocked her to the ground before she was assaulted and robbed, Stewart said.

He said an examination at River Region Medical Center, from which she was released after treatment, confirmed she had been raped. It was not known if she was sexually assaulted by both men.

The woman said $30 was taken and her attackers fled on foot.

Within an hour, a visitor from Wisconsin who had paddled the length of the Mississippi River from its source, was attacked as he walked from the City Front area east on Clay near its intersection with Cherry Street.

The man said he, too, was assaulted by two men who sprayed him in the face with an irritant just after he left a convenience store at the intersection at 9:18 p.m.

The man, who also was treated and released from River Region, did not report anything missing.

The man’s brother, who contacted The Vicksburg Post by e-mail this morning, said the victim was beaten by “two juvenile thugs for no reason other than being in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

He said his brother had stopped in Vicksburg for food and to launder his clothes.

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Contact Manivanh Chanprasith at mchan@vicksburgpost.com