The woman had landed in front of a Chinese restaurant on South Street near 2nd, and the owner had rushed out with the apron to try to stop her from bleeding to death, witnesses said.

She suffered massive head trauma from her fall and was listed in critical condition last night at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital.

Police said the woman, 31, had been sexually assaulted inside her apartment above the restaurant yesterday morning.

"I think she thought maybe she could swing herself over to grab one of the bars that holds up that sign," said a store owner across the street, gesturing at the orange-and-hunter-green neon sign over the Chinese restaurant.

Police said the woman was attacked by a man who was with a group of friends whom she had invited into her apartment after a night of partying at a local watering hole.

"He was a friend of someone at the bar, and once the bar closed at 2:30, he was invited back to her apartment," said Lt. Dan Bagnell, of the Special Victims Unit.

"At approximately 10:30 in the morning he entered the complainant's bedroom and sexually assaulted her by point of knife," Bagnell said.

After the suspect left her bedroom, the victim tried to secure her bedroom door, her attacker tried to push his way back and that's when the woman jumped, cops said.

As crime-scene-unit officers waited for a warrant to enter the apartment building yesterday, South Street patrons stopped in their tracks at the disturbing sight of the scene.

Matt Ghafary, owner of a store near the crime scene, said he often saw the victim leaning out her window smoking a cigarette.

He watched in horror as rescue workers placed the bleeding woman onto a stretcher and into an ambulance, he recalled.

"She was alive, but she was covered in blood and calling for help," Ghafary said.

Ghafary's brother Jeffrey, gesturing toward the chaotic scene and the shocked onlookers, said of the incident: "It's eventually a bad influence for the businesses in the area."

Bagnell said the woman's attacker is described as a Hispanic man between 5-foot-8 and 6-foot-2 with a thin build, wearing a tan shirt.

Anyone with information on the incident is asked to call the Special Victims Unit at 215-685-3251.