A woman escaped a kidnapper by breaking down a metal door inside a cell her abductor built and waving down a passing car, the FBI said. Now authorities are looking for more victims.

• A woman escaped her kidnapper by breaking down a door inside a makeshift cell, according to the FBI.
• The complaint alleges Negasi Zuberi posed as an undercover policeman to lure her to his home.

A woman escaped her kidnapper by breaking down a metal door inside a cell her abductor had built, and waving down a passing car, the FBI said on Wednesday. Now authorities are looking for more victims.

The FBI's Portland Field Office announced at a press conference on August 2, posted to YouTube by KGW News, that it arrested a man accused of kidnapping and sexually assaulting a woman.

According to the criminal complaint, the suspect Negasi Zuberi met the unnamed woman in Seattle after soliciting her for sex. Posing as an undercover police officer, he pointed a taser at the woman before handcuffing her, shackling her, and driving her to Klamath Falls, Oregon, the complaint alleges.

Zuberi — who also goes by several aliases — repeatedly stopped the car to sexually assault her, the criminal complaint alleges. When they arrived in Oregon about 7 hours later, he locked her in a makeshift cinderblock cell with a metal door and a single light bulb hanging above that he had constructed in his garage, the FBI said during the press conference.

After several hours alone in the cell, the victim "realized that she would likely die if she did not attempt to escape," according to the complaint.

She then began beating on the door with her bare hands "until they were bloody, in order to break free," Stephanie Shark, assistant special agent at the FBI's Portland office said in the press conference. "Her quick thinking and will to survive may have saved other women from a similar nightmare."

The victim was able to bust open the door, grab Zuberi's handgun out of his parked car, and flee the home, according to the complaint.

After receiving help from a motorist passing by, according to the complaint, the victim was taken to Sky Lakes Medical Center and given a sexual assault examination. Post-examination, the woman took law enforcement to the house she said Zuberi held her in, where officers found blood on the fence she had climbed to escape and connected Zuberi to the residence.

On July 16, the officers obtained a search warrant for Zuberi's house, according to the complaint, and located the cell the victim had described. Photos in the complaint show the small, cinderblock cell, which contains one chair, electrical cords, and several plastic bottles. Cell phone records, according to the complaint, also show Zuberi and the victim's locations matched during the alleged time of the attack.

Zuberi was arrested the same day, on the afternoon of July 16.

An attorney listed for Zuberi did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

"I want to thank the brave women who fought for their lives to get us where we are, here, today," Shark said during the press conference. "Now, it is our turn to take their burden and fight for them, any other victims out there, and seek justice."