Two police officers shot dead in Germany at routine traffic stop (photos)

At around 4:20 a.m. today, officers stopped a car near the town of Kusel in the Rhineland-Palatinate, near the border with France.

But tragically the 29-year-old male officer and the 24-year-old female officer with him, were shot to death at the scene. The latter was still studying at the police academy.

A major hunt has begun in the country to apprehend the perpetrators.

Roads in the area were closed as authorities urged people not to pick up people from the street, saying at least one suspect is armed. Searches have also expanded to neighboring Saarland.

Most of the details of the incident are still unclear and police have not yet suggested a motive for the incident, though commentators say there may not be one.

The German daily Bild said the deceased officers had sent two radio messages from the street where they were.

In the first they said they had stopped a suspected vehicle where they had found in the luggage a dead game animal.

In the second dramatic message, shortly after the first, it was said: “They are shooting at us!” and then contact was cut off.

When reinforcements arrived the female officer had died, while her colleague died shortly afterwards.

Sabrina Kunz, president of the police union, said their thoughts are with their dead relatives and colleagues.

“We are shocked by what has happened. “All police officers are living a nightmare,” she said.

The searches continue.

Two police officers were shot dead today on a highway in western Germany