Calgary police warn public of high-risk offender Gurbir Mangat, released Friday

Gurbir Singh Mangat is shown in a handout photo from Calgary police. (Calgary Police Service)

Calgary police are warning the public about a high-risk offender who was released into the community on Friday after spending time behind bars for a series of sexual assaults.

Gurbir Singh Mangat, 30, has just finished serving four years in connection to the assaults, which police say involved strangers and were committed during a "short timeframe" in Calgary in April 2018.

"In these offences, Mangat targeted women that were unknown to him and approached his victims at different locations in the downtown area, including inside a retail store, outside of an apartment building and while walking on a path," police said in a Friday news release.

Officials are releasing information on Mangat with the intent of allowing the public to take "suitable precautionary measures" and warn no one should embark with any kind of vigilante action.

"The Calgary Police Service is issuing this information and warning after careful deliberation and consideration of all related issues, including privacy concerns, in the belief that it is clearly in the public interest to inform members of the community of the release of Mangat."

Mangat is described as 195 centimetres tall (6'4"), 85 kilograms (188 pounds) with black hair and brown eyes.

He will be closely monitored by the Calgary Police Service’s High-Risk Offender Program.