A graphic tale is unfolding in South Auckland tonight with a man saying he saw a woman - bound and gagged - fall from the boot of a moving car onto a residential street. The woman is in a critical condition in Middlemore Hospital after the 7pm incident on Huia Rd near the corner of East Tamaki Rd, Papatoetoe.
'She couldn't talk. Her nose was bleeding and she was frothing from her mouth'
A gagged and bound woman who jumped from a moving car - sparking a major manhunt in Auckland - is in a critical condition and "causing concern", doctors say.
A health board spokeswoman said the woman, who was found bleeding and frothing at the mouth after the incident on HuiaRd, near the corner of East Tamaki Rd, Papatoetoe, was being treated at Middlemore Hospital.
Manukau Police say they will be releasing an update on the Papatoetoe incident later this morning.
"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.
Police have a large area around Huia Road, East Tamaki blocked off after an incident. Photo / Dean Purcell
Another resident, Apoorva Nayak, said she was outside playing with her son when she heard her friend say "oh sh*t" and race out of the driveway.
"I went to the scene with my son and [the woman] was lying in the floor and foaming from the mouth.
"From a distance it looked like her waist was bound and she was trying to free her hands.
"There was a man there who was quite efficient and he stopped all the traffic and helped her.
A police spokeswoman said it was believed the woman was thrown from a silver sedan.
Asked about the silver sedan, in which the woman had escaped from, Mr Shah said it continued speeding down Huia Rd and towards Motatau Rd.
He did not think the driver realised the woman had managed to free herself from the boot.
The vehicle following immediately behind the car also stopped to help. The female driver in that car called emergency services.
Josie Deane, who lives in the area 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.
A worker at the Z petrol station at Hunters Corner, who did not wish to be named, said police told him to stay indoors.
He said the officers would not tell him what was happening.
"The cops aren't telling us anything. No one knows what's going on here. All the roads are blocked and there is major [amounts of] cops here - it seems like 100.
"They are not letting us go outside."
There was a heavy police presence in Papatoetoe yesterday. Photo / Daniel Hines
A woman at another nearby business said she was told by a customer that the incident involved a car crash, but she was not sure of other details.
Ash Naicker lives on the corner of East Tamaki and Huia Rd.
