VANCOUVER - The Polish government has suspended its recently appointed consul general in Vancouver in the wake of an allegation of impaired-driving following a minor traffic accident.

Press officer Sylwia Domisiewicz at Poland's embassy in Ottawa said Tuesday that officials are still seeking further details on the incident last Friday involving diplomat Tomasz Lis.

"So far we have the decision that Mr. Lis is suspended, so he's no longer the consul of Poland in Vancouver," she said. "He's suspended pending further decisions."

In Warsaw, Polish Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski hinted earlier that he may fire Lis.

Sikorski told The Associated Press "we will eliminate from public service" people who "do not know how to behave abroad."

The warning was also related to an incident in which two drunken Polish lawmakers were accused by a hotel owner in Cyprus of causing damages worth more than a thousand euros while driving golf carts.

Vancouver police confirm the driver of a car with consul licence plates was arrested after being found to be over the legal limit for alcohol following an accident involving a city fire truck.

Fire department spokesman Capt. Gabe Roder said a 2009 Volvo rear-ended the fire truck as it was heading back to its downtown Vancouver fire hall.

"The firefighters didn't even feel it," he said. "He basically clipped the rear of the fire truck (and) proceeded to keep on driving ...."

Roder said the fire truck caught up with the car at a traffic bottleneck a block away and its crew informed the driver that he'd hit their truck.

"At that point they asked for his driver's licence, just like anybody else would in a motor-vehicle accident," Roder said.

Firefighters then called police, standard protocol when a city vehicle is involved in an accident, he said. They did not initially suspect the driver was impaired but "it appeared something was different, something was odd."

Police say a charge of impaired driving has been forwarded to the Crown but as yet Lis has not been charged.

"So far from my understanding and as I've heard from the consul, he didn't claim diplomatic immunity at all," Domisiewicz said from Ottawa. "He said to the police he's going to co-operate and he doesn't claim the immunity."

That was not the case in Ottawa in 2001, when Russian diplomat Andrei Knyazev avoided Canadian charges after mowing down two women on a sidewalk, killing one and injuring the other.

Knyazev refused to take a breathalyzer at the scene, claiming diplomatic immunity which Russia refused to waive.

He was expelled from Canada but once home Knyazev was fired from the foreign service and charged with involuntary manslaughter.

Canadian authorities co-operated in the case and Knyazev was convicted and sentenced in Russia to four years in a penal colony.

Lis, who assumed the Vancouver consular post only a few weeks ago, was not available for comment.

The incident took place the same day the B.C. Crown announced no charges would be filed against four RCMP officers involved in the death of newly arrived Polish immigrant Robert Dziekanski at Vancouver International Airport last year.

Dziekanski was stunned five times with a Taser after causing a disturbance at the airport. He died on the floor of the airport.

Lis was not present and not available for comment on the day the announcement concerning Dziekanski's death took place.

With files from The Associated Press