An aggressive animal believed to be a fox attacked multiple students during the past two days near the Lambeth Field, Rugby Road and University Circle areas, Charlottesville and University police officers reported.\nCity police responded to an incident on Grounds around 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, First Chief Timothy Longo said. A small mammal attacked a woman, taking her sweater, he said. It is unclear whether the alleged fox bit her.\nAt around 6 a.m. yesterday, city police officers responded to the next reported incident, involving a young woman bitten on one of her legs while jogging in the area around University Circle and Rugby Road, Longo said.\nLater that day around noon, a University student was attacked and bitten by a similar animal at the south end of the Colonnades, University Police Lieut. Melissa Fielding said. The alleged fox then ran toward the pump house railroad track area.\nSecond-year Engineering student Jarel Cohen witnessed the attack and helped the female student fend off the creature. Cohen was walking along University Circle when he heard the student screaming behind him.\n"There was this girl on the staircase, and this small animal - either a fox or a coyote - was jumping up and down," he said. "It was following her [and] kind of scratching at her."\nThe animal tore up the student's shoe and scratched her legs, feet and upper chest, Cohen said. He told the student to run away and then helped fight off the fox, Cohen said.\n"I got a pretty good blow from my backpack," he said. "It kind of crumpled up on the ground. I knocked it off of its feet and [it] kind of got up and ran back into the woods."\nSecond-year College student Taylor Carmines also was confronted by an aggressive fox-like animal, though he did not report the incident. At about 1:00 or 1:30 p.m., Carmines was riding his bike through the Lambeth complex when he passed the animal.\n"He kind of started walking toward me and then jumped at me and bit and climbed on to my shorts," he said. Carmines swung his leg and flung off the animal, which then got up and continued following him, he said. Carmines was not injured and said his assailant went back into the woods afterward.\nCarmines did not immediately identify the animal as a fox.\n"I thought it was a cat or something at first," he said, "and then I realized it was definitely not a cat." Cohen described the animal as "small and gray," measuring about a foot tall and weighing about 15 pounds.\nLongo said police forces are assuming the animal is a fox. "Based on the descriptors we've been given by the individuals involved, it appears that may be the case," he said, "but we don't know for sure."\nLongo said it is believed that the incidents involve the same animal.\n"Suffice is to say there's a relationship between these incidents," Longo said. "This is a moving target," he added, noting that incidents have occurred both on and off Grounds.\nThe University has hired a contractor to set out humane traps to catch the creature, Fielding said. For their safety, people in the area should try to avoid the prowling animal, she added.\n"If they see it, they should call 911 immediately and report the exact location of the fox," Fielding said. "We don't want them to confront it in any way or try to catch it"
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