A young woman died after jumping from a moving taxi because she feared she was being kidnapped.

Tragic Lidia Gabriela Gomez, 23, hit her head hard on the tarmac in Mexico City on 1st November. Paramedics who arrived on the scene could only pronounce her dead.

She had believed she was being kidnapped because the taxi driver had refused to stop the car, and she had shouted for help through the car window.

Her brother Diego Maldonado wrote online: “Many people heard her asking for help but unfortunately no one could do anything.”

Lidia had boarded the cab in Las Penas neighbourhood, Iztapalapa borough. She had asked for help three kilometres (two miles) later.

In the last message sent from her phone – to her boyfriend – she said the driver had taken a different route to the one she had requested and was overcharging her.

When she arrived at Constitucion de 1917 metro station, the driver – instead of letting her out – allegedly stepped on the gas and went into the fast lane.

Around 100 metres (109 yards) later, Lidia threw herself from the fast-moving vehicle.

The Mexico City Prosecutor’s Office said on 3rd November that it had opened an investigation into the incident on suspicion of femicide.

At the time of reporting, the taxi driver’s identity remained unknown.

On average, 10 women are murdered and seven are ‘disappeared’ in Mexico every day.