POLICE today revealed that five more women have come forward with information as they step up their investigation into a series of terrifying sex attacks.

Officers leading the manhunt say they have received significant new leads from members of the public after three lone women were targeted in just nine hours.

As reported yesterday, police initially believed the recent attacks, which happened on Tuesday night and in the early hours of the following morning, might be connected.

Although they are not completely ruling that out, they are now broadening their inquiries after new information was given.

They are investigating whether as many as three different men might be responsible for them and a larger spate of attacks and indecent assaults stretching back to the start of the year.

Detectives from the city’s area investigation team, who are leading the hunt, said they had received an “excellent” response from the public, including five vital calls from women all reporting similar incidents involving an Asian man.

Each of those incidents happened in the Portswood or Bevois Valley areas of the city and involved students who had been making their way home after a night out. The roads where he has struck include University Road and Clausentum Road.

They are similar to the first attack on Tuesday night, when a 20-year-old woman was pushed against a wall and indecently assaulted by a man who had asked her for directions.

The second attack happened between 1.30am and 2am on Wednesday. A 19- year-old woman was grabbed and pulled into a car park in Banister Road, where she too was indecently assaulted.

But now officers have revealed that the third attack, which happened close to the Matalan store in Havelock Road, could be linked to a further five incidents in the city centre since the start of the year, involving a man indecently exposing himself to women in the area of the Civic Centre, Palmerston Road and East Park Terrace. All of the incidents are now being reinvestigated.

Forensic examinations are now under way and officers are trawling CCTV footage from each of the locations in the hope of identifying the man or men responsible.

Det Insp Dave Morgan said: “We are extremely grateful to the public, as we have received an excellent response. People giving us more information about previous incidents gives us a much better opportunity to catch the offenders.”

Additional police patrols have taken to the streets in the wake of the incidents, he added.

l Anyone with information or who thinks they may have been targeted should call Southampton CID on 101.