A knife-wielding robber hit the 24-hour White Hen Pantry convenience store on Bass Avenue before dawn yesterday, and police now say they suspect the assailant is the same man involved in at three other recent armed robberies.

According to police, the man walked inside the convenience store around 4:45 a.m. wearing a bandana over his face and threatened the clerk with a serrated knife. The robber demanded access to the cash register and cleaned it out before running out of the store.

No injuries were reported from the incident; police confirmed that the robber had made off with cash, but wouldn't say how much.

Police are working with surveillance camera images of the robbery. The suspect is described as a white man in his 20s, around 5-foot-8, with a thick build. He was wearing a Cape Pond Ice sweatshirt with the hood pulled up over his head.

Police Chief Michael Lane said he believes the man's clothing may be familiar to people, and he urged anyone with information to call detectives at 978-283-1212.

The latest robbery — at least the fifth involving an armed assailant within the city over the last month — came just two weeks after three Gloucester businesses were robbed at knifepoint within a few hours.

In one of those robberies, at the Gloucester Auto Works on Railroad Avenue, an employee was slashed on the hand by the assailant. The victim, however, was not seriously hurt.

"It is basically the same method of operation — a single white male fitting the same description came in via knifepoint and threatened the attendant," Gloucester Detective Ken Ryan said yesterday of the White Hen robbery.

The Oct. 26 robbery at Gloucester Auto Works and another that evening at Foster's service station on Eastern Avenue were both committed by a single knife-carrying suspect, but police had not tied any of the robberies to the same potential suspect until yesterday.

About 20 minutes later that night, two men — one with a gun — also robbed the Subway on Railroad Avenue.

Foster's had also been hit by a sole armed robber on Oct. 9, the Friday night leading into Columbus Day Weekend.

Patrick Anderson can be reached at panderson@gloucestertimes.com