Update: Police have identified the woman as a 50 year old Thai migrant who lives in Auckland, she was critically injured in the attack and died late last night in Middlemore hospital . Her immediate family have been informed and have asked for the media to respect their privacy. Our thoughts are with her family and friends at this time.

Police are still hunting for two people who were involved in the incident, are appealing for the public’s help but have released very little detail about what happened or speculated on a possible motive.

Residents of the Auckland suburb of Papatoetoe were left shocked yesterday after a woman was critically injured in an abduction gone wrong.

The woman, who was bound and gagged, managed to escape from the boot of a moving car on Huia Road at around 7 pm. Her arms, legs and neck were tied, her mouth gagged. She bled heavily after landing on the road. The car she escaped from sped off after the incident. Police have yet to name the victim.

Huia Street resident, Jay Shah told the media she’d seen the woman jump from the car

“When I saw the body fall out of the boot, I ran towards the body to make sure everything was all right. I thought she was about to die.” He said the woman was tied up, her nose was bleeding and she was “frothing from the mouth”. She had a metal rod, which he believed she had used to “jack open the boot”. Shah described the woman as Asian, aged in her late 30s to early 40s. source

“When I saw the body fall out of the boot, I ran towards the body to make sure everything was all right. I thought she was about to die. “She had a metal rod next to her … so I think she used the metal rod to jack open the boot and then jump out. “Her legs were tied and her hands were tied up and she was strangled around the neck with cloth strips.”

Mr Shah told the Herald he could see bruises on her hands and wrists, where she was tied. “I untied the tie around her neck so that she could breathe and by that time, a few others came and they helped me get other strips of cloth off her neck as well,” he said. “She couldn’t talk. Her nose was bleeding and she was frothing from her mouth.” The car kept driving, he said. source

Woman in a car boot seen outside a dairy earlier in the evening:

Another local, Jane Mahe, said a neighbour had spotted the woman bundled inside the boot and called the police when the man had stopped outside a nearby dairy. source

The woman is in a critical condition in Middlemore hospital, and is causing concern, doctors say.

Josie Deane, who lives in the area that was cordoned off, said she had been mowing her lawns when she saw police outside her home. She said she didn’t see what had happened, however, a neighbour had told her that she had seen a woman fall out of a car boot with her hands and feet bound and a bloody face. She said a couple had been driving behind the vehicle and had seen the incident unfold in front of them. Ms Deane said it was shocking and “makes you think twice”. source

“She wasn’t thrown out, but she was tied up with a rope around her neck and she escaped from the back of a boot. “Her hands were tied up, her legs were tied up, rope around her stomach, around her neck.” source

Clifford Garsid, who also lives on Huia Road, said a family driving behind the silver sedan saw the woman jumping out of the car’s boot. “There was a lady in a car with her husband and three children following a car “The boot opened and a lady fell out of the boot. “She opened the boot to escape, fell out in the middle of the road.” Mr Garsid said police arrived within a couple of minutes and the woman, covered in blood, was rushed from the scene by paramedics. source

Yesterday’s incident was the latest of many high profile attacks against women in New Zealand, including jogger who was raped and murdered in Remuera,  and another female jogger who was hog tied and raped in Dunedin. In January, Auckland grandmother Cun Xui Tan was raped and murdered in her home and a 19 year old West Auckland youth arrested.

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