Police are looking for a man who allegedly slammed his pickup truck into a car on Highway 417 and then punched, shoved and pulled a knife on the car's driver.

The road rage incident happened shortly after 8 p.m. Wednesday evening just west of the Moodie Drive exit, said Ontario Provincial Police.

The black pickup truck was in the westbound carpool lane when the driver twice intentionally struck a grey car that was in the lane to its right, police said.

The grey car pulled over to the shoulder, said police, as did the driver of the pickup truck.

As the driver of the grey car was trying to call police, the pickup truck driver got out of his vehicle and approached the car. He then punched and shoved the car's driver before pulling a knife on him, the OPP said.

The driver of the car was able to wrest the knife away from the man, who then punched and shoved him again before the two ended up wrestling on the side of the highway.

The pickup truck driver eventually drove away, exiting the 417 at the Eagleson Road exit, police said.

'Out of the ordinary'

While police do get calls about road rage on Ottawa's highways, the violent nature of the Wednesday evening incident was definitely unusual, said OPP Const. Guy Prevost.

"We do get people cutting [other drivers] off. We get that from time to time. But not to that extent. That's a bit out of the ordinary."

Police said the suspect is a white male, approximately 5'8, with short red hair and an angular face. He was driving a black Dodge Ram 2500 pickup with large, jacked-up tires, police said.

Anyone with information can call the OPP at 613-270-9171 or toll-free at 1-888-310-1122.