The business school student said she had spent the night out celebrating her birthday in the northern town of Lille, when she on October 11 decided to order a ride home to the nearby town of Roubaix via the chauffeured car hire app UberPop.

When the Uber vehicle showed up at around 3:30 am, the woman said that a group of taxi drivers began insulting her and her friends, saying Uber was illegal and preventing them from getting into the car.

The woman and her friends then went in search of another Uber vehicle which was once again allegedly blocked by the rival taxi drivers.

When the group eventually located a third Uber car, the situation suddenly turned violent, she said.

The woman told Europe1 that as she was trying to get into the car she turned around and saw a taxi driver yell and throw an object toward her, most likely a bottle.

“It hit my head and then I found myself on the ground,” she told Europe1. “There was blood dripping. That’s when I started to panic.”

The woman, who suffered a head injury from the impact, reported the incident to the police.

“We are students, we don’t have the luxury of being able to take a taxi because we can’t afford to,” the young woman was quoted as saying. “If you want to go out, you take the less expensive solution. Here it’s Uber.” 

Uber launched UberPop in Paris in February this year, and billed it as a ride-sharing service that allows almost any individual to become a part time taxi driver and pick up others in their own cars.

In October a Paris Criminal Court fined Uber €100,000 for "deceptive business practices" because the firm was selling its paid transportation service UberPOP as a carpooling service.