The woman, identified as Marie, was not in the small car, which ended up a crumpled wreck after flipping upside down on a road near Vuisternens-devant-Romont, a village south of the town of Romont, police said.

Vaud cantonal police said the man, a Swiss citizen identified as convicted murderer, rapist and kidnapper Claude Dubois, suffered minor injuries from the accident.

He ran a red light in a construction zone, drove around a police block and struck a concrete median at around 1.20pm, police said.

Marie was reported kidnapped on Monday night near a golf course in Payerne, in the canton of Vaud, when a witness contacted police to report a man forcing her into a Toyota Yaris.

Police are seeking help from the public in a bid to track down the woman, of mixed race, with long dark hair and a slim build, about 165 centimetres tall.

Dozens of officers from Vaud and Fribourg were searching for the woman on Tuesday night

At the time of her abduction she was walking on foot when she was hailed by the driver of the small car, Vaud police said, citing a witness.

Words were exchanged and the man exited from the car and grabbed the woman and pulled her inside the car.

The woman cried for help but the vehicle drove off in the direction of Moudon, a town in the area, police said.

Dubois, the man allegedly involved, was convicted in 2000 for abduction, rape and murder of his former girlfriend two years earlier after she left him.

He was sentenced to 20 years in prison but from July 2012 he was allowed to finish the rest of his sentence under house arrest.

Police believe Dubois had “intimate relations” with Marie, a resident of Payerne, before the abduction.

The man’s vehicle was spotted by a Vaud cantonal police helicopter, which led to a road pursuit involving police from both Vaud and Fribourg.

Police are asking any witnesses with information about the possible whereabouts of Marie to telephone 021 644 44 44.