The man opened fire after police tried to stop a car at a routine traffic control. When the car did not slow down police took up chase. After a short chase, the car stopped and a passenger climbed out and opened fire.

The pursuing police returned fire but it was unclear on Sunday morning whether they had hit the gunman, who escaped on foot.

How many shots were fired by police and the gunman is also as yet unconfirmed.

The car’s driver, a 23-year-old man known to police, was arrested at the scene.

A large deployment of police officers, including a flying squad and dog patrols were searching for the gunman on Sunday morning. At 8am on Sunday the search was extended outside of the immediate area where the shooting occurred.

“The search is continuing, both internally and externally,” Cindy Schönström-Larsson at Skåne police told news agency TT.

A short debriefing has been held with the police involved in the incident.

“They have now been taken off duty and are being looked after.”

The police have as yet been unable to confirm the type of weapon used by the car’s passenger. According to media reports it was either a hand gun or an automatic weapon.

Police report on Sunday that they do not consider the man dangerous to the general public.