By ABC News

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Three police officers have been killed and another two wounded in a shooting in rural Pennsylvania.

Authorities said police shot and killed the shooter.

The officers were at the scene, amid rolling farmland, to follow up a domestic disturbance situation that began the previous day.

Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro said the officers “represent the very best of us”.

“This kind of violence is not OK, we need to do better as a society,” he said.

The shooting erupted in the area of North Codorus Township, about 185 kilometres west of Philadelphia.

Pennsylvania State Police Commissioner Christopher Paris said they would “conduct a full, fair and competent investigation” into the matter.

The two injured officers were in critical but stable condition at York Hospital, authorities said.

Authorities did not identify the shooter, the officers or which police department they belonged to, or describe the circumstances of how they were shot, citing the ongoing investigation.

US Attorney-General Pam Bondi called the violence against police a “scourge on our society” and said federal agents were on the scene to support local officers.

The medical response unfolded on a rural road in south-central Pennsylvania that winds through an agricultural area.

Officers were keeping people back from the scene, with about 30 police vehicles blocking off roads bordered by a barn, a goat farm, soybean and corn fields.

It was one of the deadliest days for Pennsylvania police this century.

An officer in the area was killed in February when a man armed with a pistol and zip ties entered a hospital’s intensive care unit and took staff members hostage before a shootout that left both the suspect and an officer dead.

In 2009, three Pittsburgh officers, responding to a domestic disturbance, were ambushed and shot and killed by a man in a bulletproof vest.

Dirk Anderson, a farmer who lives across a two-lane country road from the scene, said he was in his shop when he heard “quite a few” shots.

He saw a helicopter arrive and a large police vehicle response.

Mr Shapiro said he wanted the families of the slain officers to know that they were not alone.

“We need to help the people who think that picking up a gun, picking up a weapon is the answer to resolving disputes,” he said.

“We need to do better when it comes to mental health.

“We need to do better when it comes to looking out for those who are in need so we don’t have to deal with tragedies like this.”