Woman allegedly raped and killed by driver from China's largest ride-hailing firm Didi

A female passenger in Wenzhou, China, was allegedly raped and murdered by a driver for rail-hailing giant Didi Chuxing, said local police on Saturday (Aug 25).

Didi Chuxing, China's largest ride-hailing company, said in a statement that it was "immensely saddened by the tragedy", adding: "We are deeply sorry. We fell short of your expectations. We can't and we won't shirk from our responsibilities."

According to a Reuters report on AsiaOne, the victim had gotten into a Didi carpool vehicle at 1pm on Friday (Aug 24).

Zhao, 20, sent a message to a friend at around 2pm to seek help before losing contact.

Police said they found the suspect, a 27-year-old driver from Sichuan province surnamed Zhong, at about 4am on Saturday.

Zhong confessed to raping and murdering his passenger.

Zhao's body was recovered and police investigations are ongoing.

According to Didi, Zhong had passed background checks. He had also logged in with his authentic ID and was confirmed by facial recognition on the day.

However, he had altered the car's licence plate before the trip, added the transport company.

Didi also revealed how a day earlier, a passenger had complained to Didi that the same driver had repeatedly requested that she sit in the front seat, driven to a remote area, and followed her "for a distance" after she got out of the car.

It said the customer service representative who took the complaint had not followed up with an investigation within two hours, as the firm promises.

According to the BBC, Didi Chuxing has suspended its carpool service following the incident. It also fired the head and vice president of Didi Hitch, which pairs up commuters and drivers heading in the same direction.

Earlier in May this year, a 21-year-old flight attendant died after using the service in Zhengzhou. She was found half-naked and stabbed at least 20 times.

Her 27-year-old driver, a suspect in the case, was later found dead in a river.