NEW YORK - A 28-year-old Singaporean cyclist is fighting for his life after a driver, trying to escape police, mowed him down.

Mr Al-Matin Mohamed, who recently moved to the city to train as a pastry chef, was riding in the bicycle lane when the suspect's car came speeding towards him from the wrong side, at around 6.30am on Saturday, the New York Daily News reported.

The car ploughed into Mr Al-Matin, tossing him across the street and onto the pavement.

The driver swerved away but crashed into a building at Lexington Avenue, where he got out and ran away, police said.

The incident, reportedly took place close to Penn Station.

Ms Cecilia Cargill, 36, who was passing by and ran to help him, said Mr Al-Matin's feet were on the pavement while the rest of his body was on the street.

"He was fighting, fighting, fighting," Ms Cargill recalled, according to the report.

"At first he was unconscious but then he opened his eyes. I told him not to give up... He was dying. I started praying."

Emergency workers took Mr Al-Matin to Bellevue Hospital, where he was being treated for head trauma, two broken legs, a fractured pelvis and a busted arm.

Police are still hunting for the suspect and other accomplices.

Mr Al-Matin was doing a one-month stint with pastry chefs at Le Bernardin, said the New York Daily News report.

Acting Manpower Minister Tan Chuan-Jin shared the news on his Facebook account late last night, noting that the Singaporean was "in serious condition from the sounds of it".

"Remember Al-Matin Mohamed, a fellow Singaporean and Guardsman, in our prayers," said Mr Tan, who was formerly an army brigadier general.