A man riding a bicycle and brandishing a handgun robbed a couple near the Friendship Bridge before riding away Tuesday evening, Palo Alto police said Wednesday in a press release.

The victims, a man and woman in their 40s, were walking west along the San Francisquito Creek Trail, near the bridge, at about 8:45 p.m. when the bicyclist approached them from behind, police said.

The man brandished a semiautomatic handgun and asked them to hand over their valuables, police said. After taking a wallet and cell phone from the couple, the man fled west on the trail, which leads to the Baylands and runs past the bridge connecting Palo Alto and East Palo Alto.

The couple then went home and called the East Palo Alto police to report the robbery. Officers determined that the incident actually happened in Palo Alto and reported it to the Palo Alto Police Department. After learning about the incident at about 10 p.m., Palo Alto police officers searched the area but did not find the robber, police said.

The victims described the man as a black man in his early 30s and wearing a red baseball cap, a dark sweatshirt and dark-colored denim pants, police said. He is about 5 feet 10 inches tall and weighs about 150 pounds. According to Palo Alto police, no similar robberies have occurred in this area.

Police are asking that anyone with information about this incident call the police department's 24-hour dispatch center at 650-329-2413. Anonymous tips can be emailed to paloalto@tipnow.org or sent via text message or voice mail to 650-383-8984.