People have been getting unexpectedly sprayed with ink on Toronto streets this summer, police say

Suspect photos by Toronto police. (TPS)

People have been getting unexpectedly sprayed with ink while walking the streets of Toronto this summer, according to police.

A release issued by Toronto Police Service Thursday said the service is investigating five incidents that took place between June 14 and Aug. 23, in the area of Bay and Richmond streets in the Financial District

Investigators allege that, in each instance, a man sprayed pen ink on “unsuspecting people passing by."

All of the incidents happened between 8 a.m. and 10 a.m., police say.

The suspect is described by police as a man in his 30s, standing approximately five-foot-eight, with a thin build and short dark hair. He has been seen wearing grey sneakers and a black baseball cap, carrying a black or grey backpack, and had white wired headphones.

The news of the investigation comes about two weeks after a post shared on Reddit titled, 'Beware: Ink Bandit on King,' detailed similar experiences in the downtown area. The user wrote they were sprayed with ink on King Street, around Yonge and Bay streets, on Aug. 21 and that they had witnessed others who had also been hit with the substance in the days following.

"Yesterday I was hit with ink in the morning and only noticed once I got to work," they wrote. "Today, I saw these two people had been hit with ink. Neither of them had noticed. When I got to work a colleague had also been inked."

Toronto police would not confirm if the incidents alleged in the Reddit post were the same being investigated by its officers.