The crime scene where two policemen were fatally shot on Friday morning in Sarajevo. Photo: Anadolu.

Two police officers died after unidentified gunmen opened fire on them when they noticed the perpetrators trying to steal a car in the Bosnian capital on Friday morning, Sarajevo Canton police said.

“The police officers did not even get out of their car, they did not fire first, but the unknown perpetrators started shooting as soon as they saw police,” Adem Zolj, the premier of Sarajevo Canton, told a press conference.

The officers who died were named as Adis Sehovic, aged 46, and Davor Vujinovic, aged 43.

Investigators were at the crime scene while Sarajevo police were cooperating with police forces in Serb-dominated East Sarajevo to search for the perpetrators, a police spokesperson told the press conference.

According to local media, members of Bosnia’s State Investigation and Protection Agency are also involved in the operation.

“I perceive this attack as an attack on the state of Bosnia. The attack on our policemen is an attack on all of us, citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina,” the chair of the Bosnian Council of Ministers, Denis Zvizdic, said in a telegram of sympathy on Friday morning.

The OSCE mission in Bosnia has condemned the attack, regional TV station N1 reported.

The last police fatality in the Sarajevo Canton was in 2012. The killer’s motive was revenge, after the officer took away his driving licence and gave him a 50 euro fine a few days before the murder. The killer was jailed for 34 years.