Shots were fired by the police as they attempted – and later managed – to catch a man who tried to escape from them in a car, in the process causing damage to other vehicles that were parked in the area.

The police said that at 1am last night, while officers of the Rapid Intervention Unit and Criminal Investigation Department were carrying out road checks on the Birkirkara by-pass, in the direction of Lija, they noticed that the driver of a Volkswagen Passat had parked the vehicle on the side and switched off the lights.

Soon afterwards, the driver, a 37-year-old of St Paul’s Bay, reversed a good stretch of road and turned towards the Birkirkara church.

Upon seeing this, the police gave chase but the driver chose to continue his attempt to escape by driving at speed and in a negligent manner, the police said.

At one point, the officers managed to surround the vehicle with their own cars, but the Passat driver reversed onto one of the police cars. It was here that the officers used their handguns to fire shots at the Passat’s tyres, in an attempt to force the driver to stop acting dangerously.

The driver however kept on driving away, also using a one-way road to try to escape, but the RIU officers caught up with him and arrested him.

The police said the man in question was breaching bail conditions, being out on the streets when he was supposed to be at his residence. The vehicle he was using had foreign number plates.

The man was taken to hospital after he complained of pain, abut was released from Mater Dei after being seen by doctors.

Magistrate Donatella Frendo Dimech is conducting an inquiry.