(Reuters) - Three women were shot dead in a car as they tried to escape burglars who broke into a home in St. Louis early on Friday, the city’s police department said.

The women were inside a home on the city’s north side when two men burst in shortly after 3 a.m. local time, according to the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department.

Authorities got an emergency call that a burglary was underway at the home. Another followed minutes later: shots fired.

When police arrived, they found the three women, all in their 20s, dead inside a car parked outside the home, with multiple gunshot wounds, police said. A man who had been with the women inside the home managed to escape alive.

The women were identified by police as Reeba Moore, 25; Dominique Lewis, 24; and Chanice White, 24.

Police said they are looking for the attackers.