Two FBI agents from selected counterterrorism unit assigned in Northern Virginia were killed on Friday while undergoing special force training in the Virginia Beach Area, The Washington Post reports. The two agents were among the selected few who were assigned to the FBI's Hostage Rescue Team.

The agents were Christopher Lorek, 41, and Stephen Shaw, 40. The FBI said that the accident happened off the coast of Virginia Beach. FBI gave no further details about the actual accident, except that the deaths did not involve gunfire.

Mr Lorek worked with FBI from 1996 until his death. He left a wife and two daughters, ages 11 and 8.

Mr Shaw, was with the FBI from 2005. He left a wife, a 3-year-old daughter and a 1-year-old son.

FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III paid respect to the two FBI agents, saying that the two men are "two brave and courageous men, like the other on the hostage rescue team, had accepted the highest risk each and every day whether on missions or on training. Our hearts are with their wives, children and other loved ones who feel their loss most deeply. And they will always be part of the FBI family."

The FBI also said that the cause of the incident remains "under review" and thus details remain confidential and that no further statement is to be released by the agency except for the one already posted from its site.

A Navy spokesman was quoted saying that the FBI agents died aboard a Military Sealift Command Ship that the FBI has rented to conduct its training.

The two agents were then transported by a helicopter to Sentara Norfolk General Hospital which has the most advanced procedure for trauma in the area. But a spokesman for the Sentara Healthcare refuses to provide information regarding the procedure they did on the two agents.

It appears that FBI was prompt to send out instruction to everyone involved to keep mum about the details of the accident.

The police woman who responded to the accident in the Virginia beach denies having knowledge about the incident.

Another investigator assigned at the state medical examiner's office for Tidewater District told media that the cause of death can not be investigated until Monday.

An official statement from the FBI's Web site said, "the rescue team responds to the most complex and urgent FBI cases in the United States and abroad." It explained that the special unit where the two agents belongs put emphasis on "extensive, continuous" training.The extensive training involves agents mastering the method of "fast-rope" in which an assault team climbs down from a helicopter through rope. This technique is important especially during situations when a maritime target should be chase promptly by a team aboard a ship.

The FBI explained that "fast roping is an advanced skill requiring great coordination between helicopter pilots and the assault teams."

To date, no one from the FBI has yet to offer explanation as to how and when a supposedly well-guided official training led to the death of the agency's elite members.