OWATONNA — A police pursuit has ended in a crash that killed two people in the fleeing vehicle south of the Twin Cities.

Authorities said police responded to a report of a domestic assault in Owatonna Thursday, but a car with a man and woman left before officers arrived. Police spotted the suspected vehicle near I-35 and tried to pull it over, but it sped south on the interstate. Police pursued.

The Minnesota State Patrol said the car crashed head-on into a traffic light pole after exiting the interstate, killing the two. The patrol identified them as 42-year-old Louis Bennett, of Owatonna, who was driving, and his 24-year-old passenger, Sauda Abubakar Maani, of Rochester.