Chicago police have been searching all trash bins in the Bucktown area of Chicago in an effort to find some new evidence linked to the horrific baseball bat attack on two young women.

Irish student Natasha McShane and Stacy Jurich were both left in a critical condition in hospital after they were mugged by a bat wielding assailant at 3.30 a.m. on Friday morning.

Jurich regained consciousness over the weekend and is currently in a serious condition, while McShane is still in a critical condition in hospital and has not regained consciousness since the attack.

The police are searching the bins in the hope of finding the purses that the assailant may have discarded.

The police have asked street and sanitation crews to help them search the bins.

The mugging took place near a railway track and police are also questioning homeless people in the area to see if any of them witnessed the attack.

Chicago police spokesperson Roderick Drew refused to comment on the ongoing investigation and said, "the investigation is continuing and we obviously want to bring this person to justice."

Jurich regained consciousness over the weekend and was able to give a brief description of her attacker.

She described the attacker as an African American male, aged between 25 to 35, 5' 7” to 5' 9”, weighing between 160 to 170 pounds and wearing a tan hooded sweatshirt.

McShane’s parents are at her daughter’s bedside.

McShane is a graduate student at the University of Illinois in Chicago, she hails from Northern Ireland and had just received news that she had been awarded an internship in Chicago.

McShane was celebrating the news of her internship on the night of her mugging. 

Jurich and McShane were brutally beaten on the back of the head with an aluminum baseball bat.

Customers and staff at Butch McGuires, an Irish bar in Chicago, have donated money to McShane's family and have offered to raise more.

McShane worked part time in the bar and bar owner Bobby McGuire said that people have walked in off the streets to donate money.

McShane's college mates have set up a Paypal account and are accepting donations on behalf of her family.