The province’s police watchdog is investigating after a man reportedly fell to his death while fleeing from police along Highway 401 in North York early Tuesday morning.

In a news release issued Tuesday morning, the SIU said Ontario Provincial Police were notified about a man who was walking eastbound in the collector lanes of the highway between Avenue Road and Yonge Street just before 2 a.m.

According to the SIU, an OPP officer found the man and “engaged with him.”

The SIU said the man fled from the officer, running northbound across four lanes of traffic. The man subsequently fell through an open separation between the collector and express lanes to the ground below.

OPP, Toronto police, and paramedics responded to the area and the man was pronounced dead at the scene.

Two investigators and two forensic investigators have been assigned to the case, the SIU said. 

The eastbound collector lanes were closed between Avenue Road and Yonge Street for the investigation but have since reopened.

The age and name of the deceased have not been released.

The SIU is an arm's-length agency that is called in any time a police officer is involved in a death, serious injury or allegations of sexual assault.