A ride-sharing passenger in eastern China has been raped and killed by a driver for the country's largest ride-hailing firm Didi Chuxing, which is targeting the Australian market.
The 20-year-old woman got into a Didi carpool vehicle at 1pm local time on Friday, and sent a message to a friend at around 2pm seeking help before losing contact, police in Yueqing city, part of Wenzhou, said.
Police said they found the suspect, a 27-year-old driver called Zhong, at about 4am on Saturday.
They said Zhong confessed to raping and killing the passenger, and that the victim's body had been recovered and an investigation was continuing.
Didi Chuxing, the biggest ride-sharing firm globally by number of trips, said in a statement it was "immensely saddened by the tragedy."
File: A local Chinese resident uses the mobile app of taxi-hailing and car service Didi Chuxing on his smartphone in Liaocheng city, east China's Shandong Source: AAP
"We are deeply sorry. We fell short of your expectations. We can't and we won't shirk from our responsibilities," it said.
Didi Chuxing - which has been valued at $US50 billion ($A68 billion) - is aggressively expanding overseas, targeting new markets in Australia, Mexico and Brazil, and is going head-to-head with Uber. In 2016, Didi acquired Uber's China business.
Didi has been stepping up safety measures including for its carpooling service, Didi Hitch, after the murder of a flight attendant in May sparked wider community outrage.
A day before the woman was raped and killed, a passenger had complained to Didi that the same driver had repeatedly requested that she sit in the front seat, Didi said.
The passenger claimed he drove to a remote area and followed her "for a distance" after she got out of the car.
Didi said the customer service representative who took the complaint had not followed up with an investigation within two hours, as the firm promises.
