Student Beaten, Injured By Unarmed Muggers

A Lowell House senior was attacked and beaten by five men as he walked on Plympton St. after dinner on Wednesday, police said yesterday.

The victim said he was returning from the Leverett House Dining Hall at about 7 p.m. when a group of men jumped out from the walkway in front of Lowell House and approached him.

"They asked me for 25 cents and then--boom. I got hit really hard, right across the face. They knocked me flat to the ground," he said.

According to police, the student was taken to Mount Auburn Hospital, where he received stitches inside and outside his mouth.

The victim said yesterday he had always assumed that the area where he was walking was fairly safe, especially at that hour.

"It's between the two houses. It's not like we're on a public street out in the middle of Cambridge. And it's after dinner. Who would have expected it at all?" he asked.

Harvard police said yesterday that they stopped several suspects a few minutes after the incident at the corner of Putnam, and Mass Ave., but that the victim was unable to say for certain that they were involved in the attack.

Because the crime occurred on a Cambridge street, the Cambridge Police Department is handling the investigation, Harvard police said yesterday.

The student said his attackers appeared to be intent on assaulting him regardless of his ability to fight back. "I'm a six-foot tall male in fairly good shape. They were looking for the next person who was coming down there, period," he said.

The Lowell resident said he was not carryingany money at the time of the attack, but that theassailants succeeded in ripping his parka.

Police said they are investigating the incidentas an assault and attempted unarmed robbery.

The Crimson does not publish the names of crimevictims