Geoffrey Cannon said he was on the back deck of his Halifax home with his family late Saturday morning when "the whole house just shook like a bomb went off."

Unbeknownst to him, a Mercedes had crashed into the Clayton Park Drive home at around 11:30 a.m. as its driver fled from police.

"The police were after him and he just lost control and slammed through our oil tank and through our house into the basement," said Cannon.

As soon as the collision occurred, the family ran through the house and out the front door to get out. The car remained stuck, half of it in the basement.

Halifax police say extracting the vehicle will take some time. (Anjuli Patil/CBC)

Cannon has lived in the house since 2000 and expects to be out of it for some time.

"This is going to be a massive oil spill situation. It's gonna be weeks," he said.

Cannon said his family is lucky because they had walked past the spot where the collision occurred a few times earlier in the day.

The vehicle struck an oil tank located on the outside of the home. (Anjuli Patil/CBC)

The vehicle has an Ontario licence plate.

Staff Sgt. David Boone said police were stationed at a stop sign at the corner of Bayview Road and Woodbank Terrace when a car drove through it without stopping.

He said police turned on their emergency lights in an attempt to pull the vehicle over, but it sped off. Police then turned their lights off.

'Not a pursuit at all,' say police

"It was not a pursuit at all," said Boone.

The car crashed about one kilometre away from where it ran the stop sign.

Efforts by police to track the driver were unsuccessful.

Police said the suspect is a black man who is about six feet tall and between 20 and 30-years-old. They said he was wearing a white T-shirt and jeans at the time of the incident.

Halifax Regional Police want anyone with information on the incident or the identity suspect to call them. Anonymous tips can be made to Nova Scotia Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477) and online.

Car needs to be extracted

A section of Clayton Park Drive has been closed because of the collision.

"I think it's going to take a little bit of work to extract the vehicle in a safe manner," said Boone.

Nova Scotia's Department of Environment said it has been notified of the oil release.

As the regulator, its role is to ensure the person responsible for the tank gets a professional to assess if any oil has leaked and oversee any clean-up, Chrissy Matheson, a spokesperson for the department told CBC News in an email.