A manhunt is underway for two prisoners after one of them shot and killed two corrections officers transporting them on a bus Tuesday morning in central Georgia, authorities said.

Prison inmates Donnie Russell Rowe and Ricky Dubose overpowered and disarmed the officers before one of the prisoners shot and killed both guards around 5:45 a.m. on State Route 16 between Eatonton and Sparta, the Putnam County Sheriff's Office said.

Rowe, 43, and Dubose, 24, then carjacked a green 2004 four-door Honda Civic and drove west toward Eatonton, the sheriff's office said.

The department didn't say which inmate is accused of firing the shots.

The corrections officers were transporting prisoners during a work detail, Putnam Sheriff Howard Sills told CNN affiliate WSB-TV in Atlanta.

Both Rowe and Dubose are inmates at Baldwin State Prison in nearby Milledgeville.

Rowe was sentenced up to life in prison for convictions of armed robbery and aggravated assault in a 2001 case, according to the Georgia Department of Corrections website.

Dubose was sentenced up to 20 years in prison after convictions for armed robbery, aggravated assault and theft in 2014, the website shows. He also was convicted of theft and identity fraud in cases from August 2010.

Eatonton, Putnam County's seat of government, is about 65 miles southeast of Atlanta.