Manhunt under way after two police officers shot dead in rural Australia
Another officer was seriously wounded in the shooting at a property in Porepunkah.
Two police officers have been killed and another seriously wounded in a shooting at a property in a rural part of Australia.
The gunman remained at large as police scoured a vast remote area.
The shooting occurred on Tuesday morning when 10 armed police officers tried to execute a search warrant at a property in Porepunkah, a town of just over 1,000 people in Victoria state, 200 miles north east of Melbourne.
The suspect killed a 59-year-old detective and a 35-year-old senior constable, Victoria’s Chief Commissioner of Police Mike Bush told reporters at a news conference in the nearby city of Wangaratta.
The officers “were met by the offender and they were murdered in cold blood”, Mr Bush said. The man fled alone, on foot and heavily armed into surrounding forest where hundreds of officers were still searching for him, the police chief said.
He would not divulge what the warrant related to and would not confirm the man’s name or believed motivations. Officers were also seeking the man’s wife and two children, whose whereabouts were unknown.
Another detective was shot and was undergoing surgery on Tuesday night, Mr Bush said. The man’s injuries were not life-threatening.
Police urged residents to stay indoors and told the public not to travel to the area. Public buildings and the nearby airfield were closed.
The local school of just over 100 students was in lockdown for hours before students were allowed to go home. Porepunkah, known for its vineyards and scenic vistas, is a gateway to Victoria’s alpine tourist region.
Members of the national police union were shocked and saddened by “the callous murder of two Victorian police officers and the serious wounding of another”, Police Federation of Australia president Kevin Morton said.
Australian news outlets stationed in Porepunkah said a wide-ranging search was continuing hours after the shootings and television reports showed helicopters and police dogs in the area.
The last police officer to be shot and killed on duty in the country was in 2023 in South Australia state, according to the National Police Memorial website. In 2022, two officers were shot dead by Christian extremists at a rural property in Queensland state.
The three killers, conspiracy theorists who hated the police, were shot and killed by officers after a six-hour siege in the region of Wieambilla.
Such episodes prompt national news coverage because shooting deaths in Australia are rare.
A 1996 massacre in the Tasmanian town of Port Arthur, where a lone gunman killed 35 people, prompted the government to drastically tighten gun laws and made it much more difficult for Australians to acquire firearms.
