One killed, 3 injured in drive-by shooting outside Australia nightclub

Firemen wash away bloodstains after a security guard was shot dead outside a popular Melbourne nightclub on Sunday. Pic/AFP

Melbourne: One person was killed and three others were injured after a gunman fired at a group of people outside a popular Melbourne nightclub on Sunday, amid a spate of gun violence in Australia's second-largest city.

The deceased has been identified as Aaron Khalid Osmani, a security guard at the nightclub, reported Sunday Morning Herald. The injured were admitted to a hospital and are undergoing treatment.

"I just saw a car rolling up and then we heard the sound of 'pow, pow, pow, pow' ­ - four times they shot," said Sandra, a 19-year-old eyewitness. "People were all lining up to get inside the club and suddenly they started screaming and yelling, 'Oh my god, oh my god'. When the car left, it ran into the people on the ground. It was horrific, it was so horrible. I couldn't sleep," she told Sunday Morning Herald.

The police said the car which was used in the shooting was later found burnt. No information regarding the perpetrator has been released yet. However, a police spokeswoman told AFP the shooting was not believed to be linked to terrorism. Investigators were probing links to motorcycle gangs, The Age newspaper in Melbourne reported.

The latest incident came after a spate of shootings in Melbourne in March that left five people dead in four separate incidents. Two of the incidents were believed to be gang-related. Mass shootings are rare in Australia, which has strict firearms laws introduced in 1996 after 35 people were killed by a gunman in Port Arthur. A murder-suicide last year which left seven members of a family dead was the country's worst mass shooting since the Port Arthur attack.

Catch up on all the latest Crime, National, International and Hatke news here. Also download the new mid-day Android and iOS apps to get latest updates