City police are searching for a man who tried to rob a guest at a downtown hotel after gaining entry into her room by posing as a maintenance worker.

The attempted robbery occurred Wednesday at about 9:30 a.m. at the Marriott Inner Harbor at Camden Yards hotel in the 100 block of S. Eutaw St., said Anthony Guglielmi, the department's chief spokesman. A woman was sleeping in her room when a man dressed in an outfit resembling a maintenance uniform knocked on the door and said he was there to fix a problem, he said.

The woman opened the door and the man went into the bathroom, Guglielmi said. She became suspicious and started asking him questions, at which point he pulled out a silver handgun.

"He told her, 'Don't yell, don't scream,'" Guglielmi said.

But when the woman saw the gun, she began to yell and reached for the hotel phone, he said. The man flipped through her suitcase before leaving the room without any of her possessions, he said. He fled in an unknown direction.

Police were looking for a black man with a medium complexion who is in his early 40s, about 6 feet 2 inches to 6 feet 4 inches tall, and was wearing a dark baseball cap, dark navy blue jacket and pants and black boots.

Guglielmi said police were reviewing surveillance camera footage from the area.

A man who identified himself as a manager at the Marriott said he could not comment. "Police are currently investigating, so there's not much we can say," he said.