“A 32-year-old suspect was taken into custody without resisting arrest,” Saarland police said. A 38-year-old man was arrested moments earlier in the same western region, following a major manhunt.
The shooting happened at around 4:20 am (0320 GMT) in the Kusel district of western Rhineland-Palatinate state during a routine patrol.
A 24-year-old female police officer and her 29-year-old male colleague were killed.
The young woman was still in police training, according to Rhineland-Palatinate Interior Minister Roger Lewentz.
As of Monday evening, police were continuing their search following the arrest.
“We are urgently searching for the fugitive perpetrators,” Westpfalz regional police said in a statement.
“At least one of the suspects is armed,” they warned, urging residents not to pick up hitchhikers.
The shooting occurred on a small country road surrounded by forests and fields, a regional police spokesman told Welt TV.
The two officers managed to report that shots had been fired but radio contact was lost shortly afterwards, he said.
Backup police then arrived at the scene and found one officer dead and the other fatally injured.
According to German news agency DPA, both police officers alerted their colleagues that they discovered dead game in the boot of a vehicle. They later contacted them again to inform them about the first shots.
Reports further convey that the 29-year-old officer was still able to return fire before he was mortally wounded. The female police officer’s gun was found still in its holster, suggesting she had not had time to open fire.
The police said they had no description of the assailants’ vehicle and did not know the direction in which the suspects had fled.
Kaiserslautern city police said they had extended their search area to the neighbouring state of Saarland, near the borders with France and Luxembourg.
“Please do not pick up any hitchhikers in the Kusel district!” they tweeted.
Federal 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”.
“My thoughts are with the families, friends and colleagues of the victims. We will do everything possible to apprehend the perpetrators,” she said.
Police said the motive for the shooting remained unknown.
Germany’s GdP police union expressed its “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 act is appalling,” wrote the Prime Minister of Rhineland-Palatinate, Malu Dreyer, on Twitter. “I am deeply saddened that two young people have lost their lives in the line of duty.” Her thoughts are with the relatives and colleagues of the victims.
The CDU state chairwoman Julia Klöckner was “shocked” by the act. “Two police officers who were doing their job were shot. Two officers who were there for our security, who have now become victims of incredible violence themselves,” said Klöckner. She expressed “full solidarity” with the families and relatives of the victims.
As a sign of mourning, flags in the entire state of Rhineland-Palatinate are to be put at half-mast, while police vehicles will receive commemorative ribbons.
