Ontario’s police watchdog has invoked its mandate in connection with a sudden death investigation in St. Catharines.

Niagara Regional Police say that officers were first dispatched to the Burgoyne Bridge for a welfare check at around 6:15 a.m.

They say that by 6:25 a.m. the area surrounding the bridge and the southbound lanes of Hwy. 406 had been closed down for a sudden death investigation.

Few details have been released about the nature of that investigation, though police say that the Special Investigations Unit decided to invoke its mandate “as a result of an interaction with an officer and the deceased.”

The SIU is an arms-length agency that investigates incidents involving police in which somebody is killed, seriously injured or there are accusations of sexual assault.