An investigation is underway after police say a federal agent was briefly kidnapped in a northwestern Twin Cities suburb Wednesday afternoon.

Charges say agents with the Department of Homeland Security Investigations were conducting surveillance at an apartment complex on the 3900 block of Lancaster Lane North in Plymouth, Minnesota, looking for a man who allegedly overstayed his student visa.

Agents eventually approached the man, who was with a woman, and identified themselves as law enforcement officers, saying they wanted to talk to the man about his immigration status, according to the federal criminal complaint. The man asked what kind of police the agents were, and when they told him they were HSI agents, he allegedly jumped into the backseat of a vehicle and told the woman to drive.

One agent got into the front seat of the car in an attempt to stop the woman from driving away, while another agent tried to pull the man out of the car.

The woman began to drive away, causing the second agent to jump from the car to avoid being hit, charges state. The front passenger door closed due to the forward movement while the first agent was still inside.

The agent instructed the woman to stop the vehicle, "telling her that she was making a very bad decision and making the situation worse," charges say. The agent continuously attempted to put the car in park as the driver pushed her hand away, at one point warning the agent, "If you don't stop, I'm going to crash the car." The woman then told the agent they were going to the police department.

The complaint says the agent is not familiar with Minnesota and "was in fear that he was being abducted." He eventually took out his firearm and demanded that the woman stop driving, but she continued. From the backseat, the man called 911.

Other federal agents followed the vehicle in their own, at one point hitting it from behind, according to charges.

The woman eventually parked the car outside the New Hope Police Department, where federal agents pinned the vehicle with theirs. The man then jumped out of the car and ran into a nearby grocery store, where he was arrested.

Meanwhile, charges say the woman refused to exit the vehicle, but was eventually arrested.

In an interview with investigators, the man denied that agents showed their credentials or badges, but allegedly admitted that he told the woman to drive and that he tried to push the agent out of the car.

According to the complaint, the man claimed he acted the way he did "because he had PTSD from having been previously kidnapped" in his native country of Nigeria.

WCCO has reached out to Homeland Security and the FBI for comment.

The incident comes as Immigration and Customs Enforcement conducts an operation targeting Somali immigrants in the Twin Cities. So far, the department says 19 have been arrested during the operation, eight of whom are Somali.