SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - Police are still searching for a man who drove off on a city-owned snowmobile after tackling and knocking down the bylaw officer who stopped him at the end of a chase on Saturday.

A bylaw officer and tow truck driver stand near the snowmobile that was abandoned by a man near Highway 4 on Saturday who police say tackled a bylaw officer who was chasing him and then rode off on his machine. The suspect is still at large. - Adrian Lysenko/NNSL photo

The snowmobile was later found near the Dettah road but the suspect was long gone, according to Doug Gillard, manager of municipal enforcement for the City of Yellowknife.

"I've been here 17 years and this is the first incident like this (I've seen) on a snowmobile," said Gillard.

The incident is now being investigated by the Yellowknife RCMP.

RCMP Sgt. Steve Visnoski said the unusual incident began at around 12:30 p.m. Saturday when two bylaw officers on snow machines noticed a snowmobiler speeding on Frame Lake. The speed limit on the lake is 30 km/h.

"They observed a snow machine travelling toward them at a high rate of speed," said Visnoski.

The bylaw officers put on their lights and sirens and proceeded to chase the speeding snowmobile into the bush beyond Frame Lake through a series of trails.

Near the junction of Highways 3 and 4, the speeding snowmobiler crashed into a rock, said Visnoski.

He said one of the bylaw officers pulled up beside him and got off his snowmobile, while the machine sat idling.

Gillard said that's when the suspect attacked the officer.

"He charged my officer and tackled him to the ground," said Gillard.

According to Gillard, the male suspect then got up off the bylaw officer and jumped back onto his snowmobile and tried to restart it to no avail. He then quickly hopped off the derelict machine and onto the municipal enforcement snowmobile and fled the scene, leaving the bylaw officer to wait for his partner. Gillard said the officer who was assaulted was not hurt.

The snowmobile was found at about 4 p.m. near Dettah.

"There are definitely criminal charges related to this type of incident," said Gillard.

Visnoski said the suspect could be facing charges of failure to stop for a peace officer, assaulting a peace officer, theft, and possibly dangerous driving.

Visnoski said he has a suspect in mind but police have been unable to locate him.

He said the suspect's snowmobile wasn't believed to have been stolen.