MONTREAL - An investigation is underway after city police shot a man speeding off in his truck early Saturday morning.

Police intercepted a 24-year-old man as he drove off in his pickup truck after passengers got off a cruise boat in the Old Port of Montreal around 3 a.m.

When the driver accelerated instead of slowing down, an officer hung onto the car and fired at his upper body.

The man was taken to hospital where he was in stable condition.

Police have not questioned him.

"We are waiting for his health to improve for us to go and meet him," said Daniel Thibaudeau, spokesman for Quebec provincial police, who are probing the shooting.

Investigators are inspecting the man's vehicle but he has not been charged.

A business owner from De la Commune street, where the shooting took place, said he is used to hearing loud passengers coming off the cruise boat in the middle of the night.

"People are pretty loud, (they) are pretty drunk, it's not calm. It's a rather young clientele," said the man, who preferred not to be named.

He said police often patrol the area because of summer parties.

The company operating the cruise boat, AML, said it is co-operating in the investigation.