A man who was hand­cuffed and placed in the back­seat of an un­marked po­lice car by him­self in Siparia was able to dri­ve off with the ve­hi­cle lead­ing of­fi­cers on a chase on Mon­day af­ter­noon.

Po­lice said of­fi­cers of the South West­ern Di­vi­sion Task Force were on pa­trol on Syne Vil­lage, Siparia, in a black Hyundai Cre­ta, when they stopped a white Nis­san Wingroad.

Of­fi­cers searched a bag be­long­ing to a pas­sen­ger in the car and found three 12-gauge shot­gun car­tridges.

Po­lice hand­cuffed the man and placed him in the un­marked ve­hi­cle by him­self, as they con­tin­ued to search the Wingroad.

The hand­cuffed man then climbed in­to the dri­ver's seat of the po­lice ve­hi­cle and drove off.

Po­lice is­sued a broad­cast and searched the area and even­tu­al­ly found the car aban­doned on the Pe­nal Quinam Road.

The sus­pect re­mained on the run up to Tues­day morn­ing.