Route 172 near Sacre-Coeur, Que. (Google)

SACRE-COEUR, Que. - A young woman is in critical condition, and police are looking for a suspect, after she was thrown from a moving vehicle in northern Quebec.

The 22-year-old was found seriously injured on Wednesday evening on a roadside in Sacre-Coeur, Que.

She had multiple fractures from head to toe, said provincial police spokesman Bruno Beaulieu.

Officers initially thought it was a hit and run but "the investigation leads us to believe that she might have been thrown out of a moving vehicle."

Investigators have met witnesses who helped piece together the sequence of events.

Sacre-Coeur is about four hours northeast of Quebec City on the north shore of the St. Lawrence River.