'It's really scary:' Duke students react after peer raped in on-campus apartment building

The search continued Thursday night for a man accused of raping a Duke University student in an on-campus apartment building.

An alert sent to Duke students said that the student said a man entered her apartment building on Duke's Central Campus between 1 and 3 a.m. while she was sleeping in a common room.

The man, who had short brown hair and smelled of perfume, threatened her with a knife, put on a condom and forced her to have sex.

"As a woman, you get told all these things you can do to avoid these types of things, and it's like, sometimes there's not a whole lot that you can do," said Kassie Shannon, a medical student.

Right in the middle of final exams, students are now feeling extra stress.

"Everyone's studying, everyone's trying to help each other out, and to have something like this happen, it's so unfortunate. We need to do something about it," said Mackenzie Pluck.

"It's really scary. I feel terrible for that person that it happened to," said Shannon. "It sort of makes you think like nowhere is really safe, I guess."

Anyone with information about the incident can call Duke University police at 919-684-2444.