A female flight attendant, who was traveling in a Didi car in Zhengzhou city, has been murdered in the middle of the night. When she failed to contact family members, her father filed a missing persons report on the morning of 6 May. The case quickly escalated into a murder investigation.
As reported by Xu Yuanyuan for the Yangtze Evening News, it has been alleged that the murderer was a Didi driver, who was carrying a weapon, and has thus far managed to evade arrest.
“We were extremely saddened and embarrassed about the murder of Ms. Li, a Zhengzhou rider. In the face of such a tragedy, no words could express our bitter remorse. We sincerely apologise to Ms. Li’s family, while as a platform we have lost the trust of our users. In this matter, we have an unshakable responsibility”, the ride hailing company Didi said in a statement that was issued at noon yesterday.
Didi is further offering the sum of ￥1 million to anyone who may be able to provide information as to the murder details. Zhengzhou police have warned against riding at night and have advised not to get into confrontations with drivers.
As the world’s largest ride-hailing company, Didi boasts 450 million users and last year 7.4 billion rides were taken. The case comes as another blow to the company; since the beginning of the year, Didi has been fighting out a turf war with competitor Meituan that began in Nanjing.
The case has Chinese netizens worried and questioning whether the company can indeed protect passenger’s safety.
