Two police officers were killed on Tuesday in rural Australia, a rare fatal shooting that prompted police to shut down the area as they sought to detain the gunman.
Ten police officers arrived at a property in Porepunkah on Tuesday morning, where two officers were fatally shot and another seriously injured, Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Mike Bush said in a video statement.
Commissioner Bush asked residents to stay indoors while the police searched for the gunman, who escaped the property after shooting the officers.
Porepunkah, nearly 200 miles from Melbourne, has a population of about 1,000 people, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
Australian news media, including the national broadcaster, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, said that the officers had been executing a search warrant and had been ambushed in a shooting. Footage on social media showed dozens of police officers in the area of Porepunkah, and a police helicopter flying above.
Local officials shut down public buildings, including schools, and urged residents to stay indoors. Porepunkah Primary School activated emergency measures as a precaution on Tuesday and all students and teachers were safe, Jill Gillies, the principal, said in a phone interview.
Gun violence is rare in Australia, where the government enforced mandatory gun buybacks after 35 people were killed in a mass shooting in Tasmania in 1996.
While mass shootings are rare, a police officer in Tasmania was shot dead in June while he and other officers were serving a warrant to repossess a house. Excluding the incident in June, 14 officers have been killed in the line of duty since 2020, according to the Australian National Police Memorial.
Francesca Regalado is a Times reporter covering breaking news.
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