German police launched a major manhunt on Monday for a 38-year-old man named as a suspect in the fatal shooting of two police officers during a routine traffic stop. The incident happened at around 4:20 am (0320 GMT) on a rural road in the Kusel district of western Rhineland-Palatinate state, Westpfalz regional police said. A 24-year-old female police officer and her 29-year-old male colleague were killed.The shooting, for which the motive remains unclear, sent shockwaves through Germany. Interior Minister Nancy Faeser likened the crime to an “execution” and said it showed “that police officers risk their lives every day for our security”. Westpfalz police initially said they were hunting for more than one fugitive, at least one of whom was armed.In an update on Monday afternoon they said one suspect had been identified but did not specify if they were still looking for others. “According to initial investigations, 38-year-old Andreas Johannes Schmitt is a suspect,” they said in a joint statement with the Kaiserslautern prosecutor’s office. “Officers are searching urgently for this man,” they said, appealing to anyone with information to come forward. A photo shared with reporters showed a brown-haired, bearded man posing for the camera in what appeared to be a bakery.The suspect was said to hail from the neighbouring German state of Saarland, which borders Luxembourg and France. German police closed off roads and deployed helicopters and sniffer dogs in the hunt for the perpetrator.Police urged residents in the Kusel area to avoid picking up hitchhikers.A French police union source told AFP that Schmitt may have fled to France. The early morning shooting occurred on a country road surrounded by forest and fields. The officers were both in uniform but were patrolling in an unmarked car.They managed to report that shots had been fired but radio contact was lost shortly afterwards, a regional police spokesman told Welt TV. Backup police then arrived at the scene and found one officer dead and the other fatally injured.The young woman who was gunned down was still in police training, according to Rhineland-Palatinate Interior Minister Roger Lewentz. Germany’s Bild newspaper quoted unnamed sources as saying the two officers had pulled over a “suspicious vehicle” and radioed in to say they had found dead game in the trunk, before shots were fired.The female police officer’s gun was found still in its holster, according to Bild, suggesting she had not had time to open fire. Her colleague managed to draw his weapon before being killed, Bild added.Germany’s GdP police union expressed “deep shock and sadness” over the shooting. “Our thoughts are with the relatives and loved ones of the colleagues who died as a result of an act of violence in the line of duty,” GdP deputy chief Joerg Radek said. The last time a police officer was killed on duty in Rhineland-Palatinate state was in 2010, when a special task force officer was shot dead by a Hells Angel biker during a raid.