Police and ambulance attendants place one of the injured people onto a stretcher outside the CBC building on West Georgia Street in Vancouver. (Lien Yeung/CBC)

An apparent carjacking on West Georgia Street in downtown Vancouver has left four people injured following a bizarre string of events that appeared to begin with a confrontation between a driver and a pedestrian.

The incident took place just before 11 a.m. PT on Tuesday when witnesses say a male pedestrian attempted to steal a black BMW after an altercation with the driver at a crosswalk near Cambie Street.

The man then reversed up the street into oncoming traffic, dragging with him at least two other people who tried to intervene.

There are no reports yet on the condition of the injured people, put police say they have a suspect in custody and expect charges will be laid.

Details remain unclear, but according to initial eyewitness accounts, the incident began when the driver of the BMW and a male pedestrian, described by many as a homeless person, got into a confrontation near the intersection.

'It was without a doubt the most insane thing I have ever seen.' — Ryan Taylor, witness

Accounts of the incident vary, but Ryan Taylor, who was cleaning the outside of the CBC building nearby, said he saw the pedestrian confronting the driver of the stopped car.

"He runs up screaming at the guy in the black BMW which is parked on the south corner of Cambie and Georgia there, and he just yelling, and screaming and lying down in front of the car screaming at him to run him over, and then he gets up and he lies down on the hood and starts banging on the glass," said Taylor.

A woman then got out of the vehicle and yelled at the man, who then ran away. The driver and the woman drove around the corner, and parked and got out to get assistance, and that's when the pedestrian then jumped into the car, said Taylor.

Next, two or three people ran across the street and attempted to pull the man from the vehicle, which may have had at least one passenger still inside it, according to witnesses.

"They got the door open, and they were standing there between the doorway and the driver's seat. And as they were trying to wrestle or have some sort of struggle with the man, I guess, he put the car in reverse and started dragging all three of them all the way up the street," said CBC employee Lien Yeung.

"The car hit three other cars in the block as it was reversing quickly, and it came to stop at the CBC building here at the corner of Hamilton and Cambie," said Vancouver police Const. Anne Longley.

The car smashed the windows of a ground-level broadcasting studio at the newly renovated CBC building, but nobody inside the building was hurt.

Four people were injured and taken to hospital, including the pedestrian, who could face a wide range of charges, and three people who attempted to stop him, according to Longley.

"It was without a doubt the most insane thing I have ever seen," said Taylor.

West Georgia Street has been reopened to traffic.