About 60 Bixi of Montreal's public, shared rental bikes are missing, an official says. About 60 Bixi of Montreal's public, shared rental bikes are missing, an official says. (CBC)

Dozens of Montreal's Bixi rental bicycles are missing, an official said Friday.

People are vandalizing the locking mechanisms at Bixi stations to steal the shared public bikes, the official said.

The thieves use extreme force to a yank bike out of its locking station, said Michel Philibert, a spokesman for Parking Montreal, the company that runs the Bixi system. The problem seems to be a small anchor that holds the bikes in place, he said.

Philibert said about 50 bikes are not accounted for, but not all of them were necessarily stolen — some could still be returned.

Some Bixis have been found abandoned, Philibert said, adding that Parking Montreal has come up with a solution to replace the problem piece on all Bixi stations within a few weeks.