Two police officers are recovering after a struggle with a man armed with a machete and other knives broke out in central Hamilton Thursday evening.

According to police, the officers on scene were "constantly" considering the use of lethal force to bring down the man when he ran out into the street armed with a knife. But in the end, he was subdued without any shots fired.

The incident started just after 5 p.m., when someone inside an apartment on Charlton Avenue West called police and said a man inside was acting "aggressively" while carrying weapons.

The dispatcher was told that the man was armed with a machete and other knives.

When officers got there, they saw the man run into the street with a large machete in his hand, police say.

"The officers, fearing for the public's safety, immediately pursued the man on foot through the area, shouting commands at the man to stop and for him drop the machete," a police news release reads.

The man ignored them and kept running, until he got to a fence in an alleyway. "It was apparent that the man posed a serious risk to everyone's safety," police say.

One of the officers pulled out a Taser and shot it at the man, but it had no effect because of "obstructions," police say. Sometimes when a Taser is fired, the probes it shoots that carry electricity can become caught in a person's clothing.

The officers grabbed the man and tried to disarm him – and in doing so, other knives that he had been carrying on him fell to the ground too, police say. He was eventually disarmed and taken to hospital to be treated for non-life threatening injuries sustained during the brawl.

Two of the officers involved were also injured – one for a knife laceration and the other for minor injuries.

"The application and consideration of lethal force was constantly being assessed by the officers with rapid decisions being made during this incident," a police news release reads.

After an investigation, police discovered the man had also been involved in an earlier break and enter.

A 27-year-old Hamilton man was charged with possession of a weapon and breaking and entering.