UPDATED at 10:30 a.m. Monday with ages of victims

ST. LOUIS • A shooting on an interstate in downtown St. Louis left two women critically injured early Monday morning.

At about 2:40 a.m. Monday, police say, the women were in a car on Interstate 44 where it becomes Interstate 70 in downtown St. Louis.

Near Washington Avenue, they heard shots and saw a speeding car. Their driver's side window shattered. The victims ducked to avoid getting hit and the car ran off the side of the road.

Both victims were shot several times. The driver, 23, was shot in the legs and buttocks. The frontseat passenger, 27, was shot in her lower back. The women were in critical and stable condition at a hospital.

A third person in the car, a 24-year-old woman, wasn't hit by gunfire. After the shooting, the victims' car hit a wall and came to a stop in a grassy area along the highway near Cass Street.

Police had no description of the suspects.

The Missouri Department of Transportation said the location of the shooting is eastbound I-44, but was part of I-70 west before the construction of the Stan Musial Veterans Memorial Bridge.

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