Kamloops police don't know if it was the alcohol and drugs suspected to be in a 38-year-old man's system, but whatever he was on, he felt no pain after being run over twice by a van and then fleeing from the scene.

Staff Sgt. Grant Learned said Monday the shirtless man was discovered by a homeowner on Sydney Avenue who got into his 2003 Dodge Caravan and backed out of his carport at 11:30 p.m. Sunday.

The man felt a bump as the van backed over something, so he pulled forward and felt it again.

He thought it was one of his children's toys.

"He was startled to find out underneath his van was a man whose foot was pinned by a tire," Learned said.

The driver called 911, which seemed to aggravate the injured man, who pulled away his foot and tried to run off. He was cut and limping as he took off, first running straight into a fence by the driveway.

He picked himself up and took off through an alley, Learned said.

RCMP officers patrolled the area looking for the man, mainly out of concern that he needed medical attention. They got a call a while later of a suspicious man spotted in the back yard of a house near 10th Street and Sudbury.

Officers saw the man when he popped his head up from some bushes, and he began to run again. They followed him through four back yards and over five fences while trying to convince him to stop running.

The man eventually stopped and laid on the ground to wait for paramedics. He was taken to Royal Inland Hospital for treatment of cuts and scrapes, and to be checked for other injuries.

"We still don't know why he was lying under the van," said Learned, adding the man has a home and isn't suspected of any wrong doing. He did not know the people whose carport he was in.

Intoxicants, especially drugs, can cause people to not feel pain or to exhibit extreme strength, he said.