City police are stepping up enforcement and warning community groups across the city about a string of rapes over the past two weeks - five during the Halloween weekend alone - some of which investigators believe could be related.

The eight attacks, which police confirmed after receiving inquiries from The Baltimore Sun, stretch back to at least Oct. 20, when a man entered a home in the 1700 block of Barclay St. and hid behind an infant's crib, then bound and gagged a man, and sexually assaulted his girlfriend in front of him.

Police believe that attack might be linked to other break-ins that resulted in sexual assaults, including one that occurred five days later in the 300 block of E. Lafayette St., just two blocks from the Barclay home in the Greenmount West neighborhood.