A woman died after having been rushed to the hospital following a stabbing in a Saugus neighborhood early Thursday morning.

Sheriff’s officials confirmed the incident is now being treated as a murder investigation, and the suspect remained at large Thursday morning.

According to officials, the call came in at approximately 5:10 a.m. on the 22800 block of Fir Court.

“Initially, the report was that someone got stabbed,” said Supervisor Michael Pittman with the Los Angeles County Fire Department. “We were cleared to enter and one female adult stabbing victim was taken to an area hospital.”

The suspect is believed to have fled the scene after having stabbed the woman multiple times in the upper torso, per officials. The suspect is believed to have fled in a white Chevy Malibu, but no description of the suspect was released.

“It’s going to be a homicide handle now,” said Deputy Grace Medrano of the Sheriff’s Information Bureau at approximately 8:10 a.m., shortly after the woman had been pronounced dead.

As deputies investigated early in the morning, a small group of neighbors gathered at the end of the cul de sac and expressed their shared hopes that the victim might survive her injuries.

“She’s really sweet,” said one neighbor, who asked not to be identified, referring to the victim. “Just a sweet, sweet mom. She’s always doing things with her kids. Very sweet neighbor. Praying she’s OK.”

She added: “I know her kids are OK, because the (deputies) told me that.”

Natalie Arriaga, a spokeswoman for the SCV Sheriff’s Station, confirmed local deputies had responded to the stabbing early Thursday morning. She referred all additional questions about the investigation to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Homicide Bureau.

Law Enforcement Tech Einer Rivera at the Sheriff’s Information Bureau confirmed that SCV Sheriff’s Station deputies were investigating a stabbing in the Saugus neighborhood and gave the description of the female victim. However, no further information was available at 7 a.m.

– Tim Whyte contributed to this report.

This is a breaking news story and will be updated as more information becomes available.