The shootings took place near Myrtle and Tompkins avenues in Bedford-Stuyvesant.

"It looks like they were shot in the upper body," Deputy Chief Kim Royster said.

[Two dead: Investigators examine the patrol car.]

Two dead: Investigators examine the patrol car. Photo: AP

Deputy Chief Royster said that a suspect fled into a subway station after shooting the officers from the patrol car's passenger side.

The shooter died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head, Deputy Chief Royster said.

The New York Police Department's 66th Precinct tweeted: "Our prayers are with our fellow #NYPD brothers who were executed in the line of duty today in #Brooklyn." 

Fire Department officials said that an emergency call came in about 2.50pm (local time) reporting that two people had been shot.

Charlie Hu, the manager of a liquor store at the same corner, said he saw two police officers slouched over in the front seat of their patrol car. At least one of the officers, Mr. Hu said, appeared to have been shot in the head.

New York police have come under intense pressure in recent weeks, with protests erupting after a grand jury declined to charge an officer involved in the chokehold death of an unarmed black man, Eric Garner.

It was not immediately known if the case played a role in the shootings.

Mike Isaac, a neighbuorhood resident, told CNN the area was a largely African American neighborhood and had been tense since the protests over Garner's death. "The mood is pretty freaked out," he said.

The grand jury's decision this month on the officer involved in Garner's death followed widespread protests over a grand jury decision last month not to indict a police officer who shot and killed unarmed black teenager Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri.

The officers in both cases were white and the incidents put a spotlight on police treatment of minorities.

The last officer killed by gunfire in the line of duty was Peter Figoski in 2011.

New York Times, AFP

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