A man who rammed two soldiers before being shot dead by police had been ‘radicalised’ and was known to security officials, the Canadian Prime Minister has said.

Twenty five-year-old Martin Rouleau allegedly ran down two members of the military, one of whom later died. The other has minor injuries.

Rouleau was shot dead following a car chase in St-Jean-sur-Richelieu in Quebec.

Police were reluctant to speculate on the motive.

“All I can say is that the theory that this was a deliberate act is part of things we will be looking at,” said Guy Lapointe, from the Quebec Police. “It’s very early right now to have us speculating as to what the intentions were, like I said at this point we are beginning our investigation, we have to do the crime scene, we have to meet with witnesses, it’s really too early to speculate.”

The office of Prime Minister Stephen Harper later said the driver was known to federal authorities and there were clear indications he had become “radicalised”.

The Canadian government didn’t explain what it meant by radicalised, but the term has been used to refer to citizens who support militant Islamist groups.

Canada is sending six fighter jets to take part in US-led airstrikes against ISIL fighters in Iraq.