Miss Mi Ri Park, 22, was semi-conscious when she was admitted to the Singapore General Hospital with serious head injuries and several broken bones.

Her younger sister Hyeri, 12, said that Miss Park was now in a stable condition.

The driver of the car, a man in his 50s, is helping the police with their investigations. It appears that he had lost control of his vehicle and mounted the kerb.

Ms Farieetah Bibi, a security officer at a two-storey office building nearby, was on duty when the accident happened at about 3.10pm.

'I heard a really loud boom,' she said.

She emerged to see Miss Park lying in a drain near the pavement with some of her clothes torn away.

'I couldn't see her face but she was covered in blood,' she said.

Miss Park will undergo surgery for her leg and shoulder today, said her sister.

Miss Park had been living in Singapore for about a year and was hoping to study hotel management after finishing her studies in the Canadian International School.

Both Hyeri and her mother Mrs Eunsoon Park did not know the details of the accident as they had just arrived in Singapore from Kota Kinabalu, where the rest of the family has been living for the past five years.

Miss Park's father, a businessman, and her youngest sister, aged nine, arrive today.

Mrs Park, 40, told The Straits Times about her ordeal when she received a call about the accident: 'I cannot even explain. I was shocked and very frightened.'