LEWISTON — Police subdued a local man Wednesday afternoon after a tense standoff high above a canal behind Chapel Street Alley.

Police had gone to the area early Wednesday afternoon for reports of disturbances at a homeless encampment there.

As the officers were moving people along, one man took off running, police said. The officers recognized the runner, police said, as a 42-year-old who was wanted on drug charges.

As police gave chase, the man jumped over a fence next to the canal near the hydroelectric project, police said. He came to a stop before a steep drop to the mostly empty canal.

“We were trying to coax him out,” Lewiston police Lt. Derrick St. Laurent said. “We didn’t want to pressure him too much because there’s a heck of a drop there.”

Police cut a hole in the fence as negotiators tried to talk the man down.

At one point, police said, the man revealed a syringe sticking out of his arm. A police negotiator convinced the man to drop the needle and he eventually complied.

When the man requested cigarettes and a lighter, witnesses said, police procured the items for him. As they handed the cigarettes over, officers grabbed the man and took him into custody.

He was taken by ambulance to St. Mary’s Regional Medical Center for evaluation.

Police said the man, who lives on Bartlett Street in Lewiston, was arrested on a warrant for failure to appear in court and charged additionally with refusing to submit to arrest and creating a police standoff.

No injuries were reported during the standoff.