Montreal’s public transit agency (STM) says it will investigate the use of force shown in a video circulating on social media on Sunday showing a violent interaction between public transit officers and a citizen.

The footage shows two STM security officers pinning down a Black man and then violently fighting with him as witnesses try and intervene while someone is heard loudly screaming. The incident happened on the platform of Montreal’s Jean-Talon metro station on Saturday.

The video was posted to various social media accounts and was viewed over 24,000 times on Twitter as of Sunday night.

The Twitter user who posted the video said they arrived once the altercation was already taking place and filmed the scene, but didn’t know the details of what led to the incident.

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Amélie Régis, a spokesperson for the Société de transport de Montréal (STM), told Global News that one of the inspectors was aggressively bit by the man until he was bleeding, which is what prompted a second inspector to intervene.

According to the STM, the incident started because the man involved had snuck onto the metro platform without purchasing a ticket. The transit agency says the inspector approached him, asked him for ID, which the man refused to provide. The agency says he then attempted to run toward the exit which is when the altercation allegedly began.

Régis said an investigation into the use of force from the inspectors will be conducted early this week.

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