A 74-year-old woman who left the door to her muggy SoHo apartment open to let in some air became the victim of a vicious robbery and attempted rape after a man pushed his way into her home and choked her, police officials said yesterday.

According to the police, the woman who was attacked Tuesday lost consciousness briefly from lack of oxygen. When she awakened, the man attempted to rape her but could not.

He then demanded her ATM card and PIN before fleeing, police said. In the next few hours, the man withdrew money from banks in Manhattan and Brooklyn. The amount stolen couldn’t be verified yesterday because the banks hadn’t yet reported the amounts withdrawn.

The crime took place at an apartment building near the intersection of Sullivan and Broome Streets, in a Manhattan neighborhood that has seen little crime in recent years, police said.

Footage from surveillance cameras at the banks was released yesterday in hopes that members of the public would recognize the assailant.

According to 2003 numbers from the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics, only 2% of violent crime in America is perpetrated against those over age 65, though experts say many crimes are never reported.

The director of the Sexual Assault and Violence Intervention Program at Mount Sinai Medical Center, Iona Siegel, said sexual abuse of the elderly is not uncommon. Their vulnerability makes them an easy target, she said.

“They just feel so much shame at this age that there was sexual assault – it’s very difficult for them,” Ms. Siegel said. “The abuse is done usually by people they know, no differently than with children.”

A spokesman for the city’s Department for the Aging said the elderly also fear retaliation if they report abuse.

This week’s attack is the second attempted rape of an elderly woman reported in five weeks.

On June 9, an 88-year-old woman, partly blind and unable to speak much English, was raped and robbed by a man who pushed his way into her apartment in Chinatown, police said.