A dramatic video has emerged of a violent police arrest in Montpellier, France.

In the footage, captured on Sunday by a passer-by, police officers restrain a man on the ground before putting him the back of their car.

The man then kicks through the back window of the car and releases the vehicle’s hand-brake as crowds of onlookers call out, denouncing the actions of the officers - which they deem to be excessively forceful

According to local media, the officers were performing identity checks on local street vendors when the 26-year-old man was spotted putting paper in the exhaust pipe of one of the officers’ motorcycles and emptying a bottle of water into the officer’s motorcycle helmet.

When police then requested that the man present his identity papers, some passers-by intervened and the man tried to escape before he allegedly insulted the police officers and threatened them with a pen.

The man will be judged in a plea bargaining agreement.

A dramatic video has emerged of a violent police arrest in Montpellier, France.

In the footage, captured on Sunday by a passer-by, police officers restrain a man on the ground before putting him the back of their car.

The man then kicks through the back window of the car and releases the vehicle’s hand-brake as crowds of onlookers call out, denouncing the actions of the officers - which they deem to be excessively forceful

According to local media, the officers were performing identity checks on local street vendors when the 26-year-old man was spotted putting paper in the exhaust pipe of one of the officers’ motorcycles and emptying a bottle of water into the officer’s motorcycle helmet.

When police then requested that the man present his identity papers, some passers-by intervened and the man tried to escape before he allegedly insulted the police officers and threatened them with a pen.

The man will be judged in a plea bargaining agreement.