The Royal Canadian Mounted Police in Cochrane, Edmonton, Canada are asking witnesses to come forward to an unusual incident that took place between a car driver and some cyclists at the weekend.

The three cyclists were out for a sociable sunday ride, to the west of Cochrane, when a car pulled alongside and threw lit fireworks directly at them. In an attempt to avoid his fellow cyclist who braked suddenly at the front of the group, rider Paul Benoit ended up in a nearby ditch. Benoit sustained a fractured elbow and required multiple stitches to his arm. 

According to the Edmonton Journal the riders weren’t really aware of the exact nature of the attack at the time it happened "We didn’t know it was fireworks. It was a big ball of smoke and flame coming out of it. We thought it might have been a pipe bomb." said Benoit.

The other riders were shaken but otherwise uninjured. 

The area has seen a worrying rise in anti-cyclist activity. A local bike shop owner commented "This is stepping over the boundary to semi-violent. Those people just don’t realise how much of a stratle that would be."

We suspect that having lit fireworks thrown at you when you’re out cycling on a chilled Sunday morning could be classed as slightly more than a "startle"