A huge manhunt is under way for a “heavily armed” male suspect after two Australian police officers were shot dead and one injured in an ambush at a property in a small rural town in Victoria state.Police described the situation in Porepunkah in the Australian Alps – some 300km (186 miles) north-east of Melbourne – as an “active incident” with hundreds of personnel deployed to find the suspect.Officers were attacked as 10 of them attended the property to serve an arrest warrant, which Australian media said was for historical sex offences.Police say the suspect escaped into the bush alone and on foot after the shooting. Officers are still trying to locate the man’s wife and children.Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Mike Bush said 10 officers went to the property on Tuesday at about 10:30 local time (00:30 GMT).He described officers being fired upon by a heavily armed offender, saying two colleagues – a 59-year-old detective and a 35-year-old senior constable – were “murdered in cold blood”. A third officer was seriously injured and airlifted to hospital.The state police chief said all the available resources were being used in the manhunt for a “dangerous” suspect, and urged locals to stay indoors.”[Our] priority is to arrest him and bring safety and security to this community,” the officer said.He added that the suspect was believed to have been on his own at the time of the shooting, and that police “are still looking to locate his partner and two children, but he was not seen to head into the bush with them”.Mr Bush said the fact so many officers were attending, highlighted that they knew the risks – and urged the gunman to give himself up.The police chief did not confirm the nature of the raid that officers were executing at the property.Footage from the scene earlier on Tuesday showed dozens of police deployed to Porepunkah and a police helicopter circling in the …
