A man accused of abducting a young woman from her north Queensland home is captured by police, caught fleeing the scene of a car crash which left his alleged victim injured.

Police believed the 20-year-old woman was being held against her will by a man she knew, taking off from the Port Douglas home about 2:00am Wednesday in a dirty, black-coloured Holden Commodore station wagon.

A major search was launched including road blocks on the Kuranda Range, south of the town, and some residents were put in lockdown.

The ordeal ended when the man crashed the wagon down a steep embankment on the Kennedy Highway near a police road block at Smithfield, north of Cairns, about 7:40pm on Wednesday.

Police had been notified about the car via the public about an hour earlier.

The missing woman, who was in the car, was found by police and taken to Cairns Hospital where she remains in a stable condition.

A 24-year-old man ran into nearby bushland but was tracked by specialist police and a helicopter.

He was arrested about 9:00pm and is expected to face charges today.

The woman has been reunited with family and is recovering in hospital.

"Thank you endlessly to everyone who posted and shared," her sister said on Facebook last night.

"We have just spoken to her and going to get her now."

Acting Inspector Mick Gooiker said police were "extremely worried about her safety" and had warned anyone who saw the man not to approach him and to contact police.