Two police officers were shot and killed while conducting a traffic stop in southwestern Germany, authorities said on Monday.

The shooting occurred when the officers stopped a vehicle in the small town of Kusel in the early hours of Monday morning, local police said in a statement.

Those who were killed in the shooting were a 24-year-old policewoman and a 29-year-old policeman.

An intense manhunt is underway for the suspects, who fled to an unknown location after the shooting, police said.

Erfort said he didn’t know whether the officers had seen something particular about the assailants’ vehicle that they wanted to check or whether it was just a routine check.

The perpetrators fled but police had no description of them, the car they used, or what direction they fled in. A manhunt was extended to the neighboring German state of Saarland, police said.

They have called on drivers in the Kusel area not to pick up hitchhikers and warned that at least one suspect is armed.

The younger officer killed in Monday’s incident was still studying at a police academy the Gdp police union said.